Wail al-Shehri was born on 31 July 1973 in Khamis Mushait, Asir Province, Saudi Arabia, the older brother of Waleed al-Shehri. The al-Shehri family strictly followed Wahhabism, and they did not allow for Wail to listen to music, have contact with girls, use the Internet, or use the television. In 1999 Wail graduated from the Abha teachers’ college and became a teacher at an elementary school, but five months into his job, he had a mental illness and decided to have a sheikh read the Qur’an to him and to go to Medina. After going to Mecca, Wail and Waleed called their father just once, not specifying when they would return, and they planned to fight for jihad in Chechnya. However, they headed to Afghanistan instead, and they swore an oath and commitment to jihad at a mosque. In March 2000, Wail, Waleed, and Ahmed al-Nami left for Pakistan and then headed to Afghanistan, where they were trained at the Khalden and al-Farouq training camps by the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. In 2000, senior al-Qaeda leaders selected Wail as one of the nineteen hijackers in the planned terrorist attacks against the United States out of thousands of recruits. Wail was one of the “muscle hijackers” who would help in taking over the plane, and he was told little of his mission to America.

On 3 October 2000 he was given a passport and gained a visa on 24 October, assisted by a relative who worked in the Saudi passport office. In late 2000 he bought traveler’s checks in the United Arab Emirates, and in March 2001 he was seen in a video while studying maps and flight manuals. On 8 June 2001 he arrived at Miami International Airport in the United States and deposited $8,000 in a SunTrust Bank. On 5 September 2001 he stayed at a Chestnut Hill hotel, and Wail and Waleed called a prostitute while at the hotel. On 11 September, Wail boarded American Airlines Flight 11 and helped to take it over, and he died when the plane crashed into the World Trade Center.