Flydubai co-pilot attempted to crash aircraft en route to Tel Aviv
An Omani co-pilot attempted to attack the captain on a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv and bring down the aircraft. The 29-year-old had previously been subject to a flight ban due to extremist ideology.
Attack on Flydubai flight prevented
According to authorities in the United Arab Emirates, a co-pilot attempted a "terrorist attack" on a Flydubai flight on Wednesday. According to the Public Prosecutor of the UAE, the man attacked the flight captain with an emergency axe and attempted to take control of the aircraft. Despite suffering serious injuries, the captain locked himself in the cockpit and shut out the attacker.
The flight was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv. Several passengers forced their way into the cockpit and overpowered the co-pilot, whereupon the aircraft made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
According to n-tv, the 29-year-old is an Omani citizen who also holds a passport from the United Arab Emirates. His father is from Oman, his mother from Syria. The man is now in custody in the UAE.
Flight ban due to radical ideology
The co-pilot should not have been on board. According to reports from US media, he had been suspended from Oman Air due to security concerns. ABC News reported, citing senior intelligence and law enforcement officials, that extremist material had been found on him when he was working as a co-pilot candidate at the airline in 2024.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the man was subsequently subject to a temporary flight ban. The grounds were concerns that he held radical ideological views. After his dismissal from Oman Air, he worked briefly for a Moroccan airline before moving to Flydubai approximately eight months ago.
The central question for the investigation is: how was the man able to move to Flydubai despite his flight ban and security history, and be deployed on an Israel route?
Videos on LinkedIn and investigation questions
Following the incident, videos were published on a LinkedIn profile attributed to the suspect. According to CNN and Bild newspaper, these showed images of former Al-Qaeda leader Aiman al-Zawahiri and Jordanian suicide bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi. Another video showed the three holiest cities of Islam – Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem – accompanied by an Islamic poem calling for overcoming humiliation and resistance. Who published these contents and whether they actually came from the suspect remains unclear.
According to ABC News, the suspect indicated to investigators that he had intended to crash the aircraft over Israel. These statements have not yet been independently confirmed. Investigators continue to examine whether this was an act of a "lone actor" or whether there were links to extremist groups.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the co-pilot had undergone "Islamist radicalisation". His government has not provided evidence to date. The UAE's diplomatic adviser, Anwar Gargash, described the incident as a "dangerous terrorist act". Neither Flydubai nor the Omani government have publicly commented on the incident so far.
Source: n-tv