A routine flydubai service bound for Israel erupted into chaos this week when, UAE investigators say, the co-pilot launched an assault in the cockpit and tried to seize the aircraft using an emergency axe.
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates said their preliminary investigation concluded the co-pilot was attempting to carry out a “terrorist act,” but they have not disclosed what drove him to attack, or officially confirmed his nationality, according to the state news agency WAM.
A Saudi source, however, told AFP the co-pilot was Omani.
Separate media reports have said he had previously been barred from flying in his home country amid concerns he held extremist views.
The developments came as flight operations resumed: the first plane carrying Israelis back from the United Arab Emirates landed in Tel Aviv after services were halted in the wake of the attack, according to Israel’s airport authority website.
“The co-pilot had attempted to carry out a terrorist act” and had “attacked the captain in the cockpit with the emergency axe and tried to take control of the aircraft,” WAM quoted UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi as saying, describing initial investigative findings.
The co-pilot remains in custody in the UAE. Several media outlets overnight identified him as Omani national Hamam al-Hammami, and reported he had been banned from flying in Oman over concerns about extremist views.
According to accounts of the incident, the flydubai flight’s Indian captain was attacked in the cockpit, but managed to open the cockpit door. Passengers and crew then intervened, overpowering the assailant as the aircraft diverted for an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
Pilot Smit Machchhar was attacked in the cockpit by the co-pilot
Passengers later described rushing toward the cockpit and a struggle for control after the plane suddenly dropped — losing around 17,000 feet of altitude in the span of a minute, according to the Flightradar24 website.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the suspect had undergone “Islamist radical indoctrination” and had tried to crash the plane.
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Omani authorities had banned the pilot from flying after concerns he had adopted radical ideological views, citing people familiar with the matter.
CNN, citing two sources familiar with the matter, reported the pilot was removed from a job at Oman’s national airline last year because of concerns about extremist views.
Al Arabiya, citing an informed source, similarly reported that Omani authorities determined the co-pilot held extremist views.
The broadcaster said he had spent time in Syria, prompting concerns he may have been influenced by radical groups there.
ABC News, citing senior intelligence and law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation, reported the suspect had allegedly been found in possession of extremist materials while he was a trainee.
US President Donald Trump warned on Thursday that if Iran was found to be linked to the attack the country would be “hit very hard”.
Mr Netanyahu said Israel would review how the co-pilot had been approved to work on flights to the country.
“We have constraints that say that you can’t have pilots from countries that don’t have diplomatic relations with Israel. Obviously he was able to go through that,” he told Fox News.
