FlyDubai co-pilot planned to crash into Tel Aviv airport, UAE prosecutor reveals
An Omani co-pilot attacked the captain of a FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv, intending to crash into Israel's main airport. UAE prosecutors detail his confession and radicalization.
FlyDubai co-pilot plotted to fly plane into Tel Aviv passenger terminal
The axe-wielding co-pilot who attacked the captain of a FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv last month intended to seize control of the aircraft and crash it into the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion International Airport, the United Arab Emirates' top prosecutor announced Friday, according to click2houston.com.
The suspect, identified by the Associated Press as 29-year-old Hamam al-Hammami, an Omani national, acted "with the intention of causing the greatest possible number of human casualties," the UAE's public prosecutor said in a statement carried by state news agency WAM. Most of the 174 passengers aboard the flight were Israeli nationals.
Al-Hammami "drew inspiration" from the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, the statement said. He had used two earlier flights from Dubai to Tel Aviv to "familiarize himself with the flight route and the airport" ahead of the assault on 30 September.
None of FlyDubai's security or professional screening procedures had flagged that Hammami harboured extremist views or any plans to carry out an attack, according to the prosecutor's statement. The statement also indicated he was radicalized at a mosque in Australia while studying at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2017.
Hammami "admitted that he had acted alone, without the involvement of others" and "provided a detailed confession outlining his motives and the stages of planning and execution" in the presence of his lawyer, the prosecutor said.
The incident unfolded over the skies above Jordan and Saudi Arabia when Hammami attacked captain Smit Machchhar with a crash axe inside the cockpit. Bloodied and beaten, Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door, alerting passengers and crew to the assault.
Passengers then subdued Hammami and helped stabilise the aircraft, which had plunged approximately 14,000 to 16,000 feet in under a minute. Two reserve pilots subsequently guided the plane to an emergency landing at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia.
Friday's statement from the public prosecutor is the most detailed account of the incident since UAE authorities assumed control of the investigation shortly after the attack. FlyDubai is a government-owned airline.
Source: Google News AE