FlyDubai Co-Pilot Meant To Crash Airplane Into Tel Aviv Airport, UAE Prosecutor Says
JERUSALEM (AP) — The axe-wielding co-pilot who attacked the captain of a FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv final month supposed to grab management of the airplane and fly it into the passenger terminal at Israel’s principal transnational airport, authorities within the United Arab Emirates mentioned Friday.
The suspect, an Omani nationwide, did so “with the intention of inflicting the best doable variety of human casualties,” the UAE’s prime prosecutor mentioned in a press release carried by the state information company WAM. Most of the 174 passengers on the flight have been from Israel.
The assertion mentioned the co-pilot “drew inspiration” from the Sept. 11, 2001 assaults within the United States and used two earlier flights from Dubai to Tel Aviv to “familiarize himself with the flight route and the airport.”
It mentioned none of FlyDubai’s safety or skilled checks had indicated that the pilot, who was recognized by The Associated Press as 29-year-old Hamam al-Hammami, harbored extremist views or plans to hold out an assault.
Hammami “admitted that he had acted alone, with out the involvement of others,” the assertion mentioned, including that he “supplied an in depth confession outlining his motives and the levels of planning and execution” within the presence of his lawyer. It additionally recommended he was radicalized at a mosque in Australia whereas attending the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2017.
The replace from the general public prosecutor Friday was probably the most complete for the reason that UAE took over the investigation shortly after the incident on Sept. 30. FlyDubai is a government-owned airline.
The disaster unfolded abruptly within the skies above Jordan and Saudi Arabia, when Hammami attacked the captain, Smit Machchhar, with a crash axe within the cockpit. Bloodied and crushed, Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door, alerting passengers and crew to the assault.
Passengers detained Hammami and helped regular the plane, which had plunged roughly 14,000 to 16,000 ft in lower than a minute. Two reserve pilots then guided the plane to an emergency touchdown at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia.
