Jerusalem: UAE authorities announced on Friday that the co-pilot of a flydubai flight headed to Tel Aviv last month had schemed to seize control of the aircraft and deliberately crash it into the passenger terminal at Israel's primary international airport.
In an official statement released through the state news agency WAM, the United Arab Emirates' chief prosecutor stated that the Omani suspect acted with the objective of generating the highest possible number of fatalities. The majority of the 174 passengers traveling on board the aircraft were citizens of Israel.
The disclosure indicated that the co-pilot drew motivation from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. He reportedly utilized two prior flights departing from Dubai and arriving in Tel Aviv to study the specific flight corridor and ground layout of the airport. Investigators noted that routine professional evaluations and security protocols conducted by flydubai failed to flag that the pilot, identified by media reports as 29-year-old Hamam al-Hammami, possessed extremist ideology or any intent to launch an assault.
According to the prosecutor's office, Hammami confessed during questioning in the presence of his legal counsel that he operated entirely alone without outside accomplices. He provided a comprehensive admission detailing his motivations alongside the various phases of planning and execution. The update further suggested that he may have been radicalized at an Australian mosque while attending classes at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology back in 2017. This briefing represents the most thorough description issued since the UAE assumed jurisdiction over the inquiry following the September 30 event involving the government-owned carrier.
The in-flight emergency transpired over the airspace of Jordan and Saudi Arabia when Hammami assaulted the Indian captain, Smit Machchhar, inside the cockpit utilizing a crash axe. Despite sustaining severe injuries and bleeding, Captain Machchhar succeeded in unlocking the cockpit entry to notify travelers and fellow crew members about the threat. Passengers subsequently subdued Hammami and assisted in stabilizing the plane after it plummeted between 14,000 and 16,000 feet within a span of less than a minute. Two reserve aviators then stepped in to navigate the commercial jetliner toward a safe emergency landing at Tabuk airport located in Saudi Arabia.