No one believed for a moment that any hijacked airline pilot would fly a fuel-laden Boeing into the World Trade Center or the Pentagon, even with a gun to his or her head. So it was assumed from the beginning that hijackers had to fly them, and the hijackers had to be trained pilots. As evidence was uncovered, it became sickeningly apparent that these suicide pilots were not trained to fly in some remote terrorist enclave, but rather in the U.S. While experts disagree on how much training would be required to fulfill the suicide missions, it seems clear the suspected hijackers had trained at least to the commercial multi-engine level. Two of the hijack pilots reportedly obtained some instruction in a Boeing 727 simulator at SimCenter in Opa-Locka, Fla.
The FBI has reported that there were a total of 19 hijackers on all four airliners. Seven were listed as pilots. On American Airlines Flight 11 out of Boston, the first to crash into the World Trade Center, five hijackers were alleged to be among the 81 passengers. Four of those five were listed by the FBI as pilots, though the level of their training and experience remained unclear at press time. Mohammed Atta, 33, is believed to have been at the controls.
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