News24 | Flydubai co-pilot’s axe attack on captain was a planned ‘terrorist act’, UAE says

The UAE’s attorney general said the co-pilot of a flydubai flight to Israel had planned a “terrorist act” and attacked the captain.

REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo

• The UAE’s attorney general said the co-pilot of a flydubai flight to Israel had planned a “terrorist act” and attacked the captain with the cockpit’s emergency axe.
• The captain managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to overpower the attacker and force an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
• Multiple media reports suggested the co-pilot, identified as Omani national Hamam al-Hammami, had been banned from flying over Oman over concerns about extremist views.

The UAE’s attorney general said the co-pilot of a flydubai flight to Israel had planned a “terrorist act” and used the cockpit’s emergency axe to attack the captain, the official UAE news agency WAM reported on Saturday.

WAM quoted Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi as saying that according to the initial findings of an investigation, “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”.

Scrutiny into the alleged assailant – who was identified in reports as Omani national Hamam al-Hammami – and his motives has intensified after Wednesday’s drama aboard a Dubai-Tel Aviv route that officials say narrowly avoided catastrophe.

During the flydubai flight, the jet’s Indian captain was assaulted by his co-pilot, but he managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to overpower the attacker and force an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the suspect had undergone “Islamist radical indoctrination” and had attempted to crash the plane.

READ | Israel-bound flight with 150 on board diverted to Saudi Arabia after brawl between pilots

Multiple media reports suggested that the co-pilot had been banned from flying over Oman due to concerns about alleged extremist views.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Omani authorities had banned the co-pilot from flying over concerns he had adopted radical ideological views, citing people familiar with the matter.

CNN, citing two sources familiar with the matter, also reported the co-pilot was removed from a job at Oman’s national airline last year over concerns about radical views.

Al Arabiya, citing an informed source, reported that Omani authorities determined that the co-pilot held extremist views.

Yaniv Hayun, one of the men who helped incapacitate the attacker on the FlyDubai aircraft bound for Israel from the United Arab Emirates, which was diverted to Saudi Arabia following an emergency signal, reacts after arriving at the Ben Gurion International Airport, in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel on 30 September.

REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo

A screengrab taken from Flightradar24 shows a flydubai flight to Israel, which was diverted to Saudi Arabia on 30 September.

Flightradar24.com/Handout via Reuters

The broadcaster said he had also spent time in Syria, raising 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.