Crime09 October, 20262 min read
UAE Attorney General Says Flydubai Co-Pilot Hamam Al-Hammami Planned Suicide Attack On Ben Gurion Airport
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Omani co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami planned to crash the Flydubai flight into Ben Gurion Airport. Inspired by 9/11, he aimed to maximize casualties at the airport.
9 outlets told this the same way.
UAE probe links plot
The United Arab Emirates attorney general Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said the Flydubai co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami was inspired by the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and planned to crash the aircraft into Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport. The UAE preliminary findings described a “premeditated plot with a terrorist objective, aimed at taking control of the aircraft and using it to carry out a suicide attack targeting the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion Airport,” with the aim of causing “the greatest possible number of casualties,”.
The investigation found that the September 30 flight was not al-Hammami’s first trip to Ben Gurion Airport, and it said he took part in two earlier flights to familiarise himself with the route and the airport before carrying out the alleged attack. The UAE investigation said signs of his drift towards extremism and terrorism first emerged in 2017 while he was studying in Australia, and it said he increased his exposure to material inciting terrorism and trained in boxing under a private coach.
Cockpit attack and landing
The Flydubai flight FZ1073 departed Dubai for Tel Aviv at 7:05am (03:05 GMT) on September 30, and it climbed to 34,000ft before a steep descent began a little more than two hours later. The UAE account said a fight began in the cockpit after the co-pilot stabbed the Indian captain of the plane, Smit Machchhar, and Machchhar later described finding himself seriously wounded on the cockpit floor as the aircraft descended.
Passengers and crew members entered the cabin and overpowered the co-pilot, and the aircraft eventually levelled out at about 15,000 feet with its transponder switched to code 7500 signalling unlawful interference. The flight-tracking data described the plane plunging more than 17,000 feet in about two minutes, and the aircraft landed safely at 9:45am local time (06:45 GMT) after reserve pilots took control and landed it in Tabuk, northwestern Saudi Arabia.
Security checks and scrutiny
The UAE prosecutor said the findings showed the co-pilot met professional and security requirements for employment, including holding a pilot’s licence, possessing a certificate of good conduct and passing the required examinations.
The UAE attorney general Hamad Saif al-Shamsi said “none of the procedures revealed any indications of his extremist views or his intention to carry out a terrorist plot,” while the investigation continued to check the co-pilot’s claim that he acted alone.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog awarded the Presidential Award for Civilian Heroism to six Israelis who helped foil the attempted flydubai hijacking, and Herzog said, “The civilian bravery and resourcefulness demonstrated by the heroes present here cannot overshadow the obligation to obtain full answers. Everyone, all of us, deserves clear and satisfactory answers,”.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the passengers and the pilot for their bravery in thwarting the attack and ordered a “thorough review of all security aspects of foreign civil aviation to Israel,” after the incident.