The flydubai attacker meant to carry out a September 11-inspired suicide mission, crashing the plane into Israel’s largest airport, Emirati investigators said.
The flydubai attacker meant to crash the plane into Israel’s largest airport, in a September 11-styled suicide mission, Emirati investigators have said. They noted that the co-pilot had developed increasingly extreme Islamist views over the last few years.
The announcement came from the Attorney General of the United Arab Emirates. He provided a comprehensive account of the co-pilot’s motives, and preparation for what the Emiratis called a ‘terrorist operation’.
The report raised questions of how signs of radicalization were missed and how the individual was allowed to fly this sensitive route. Over 170 passengers, mostly Israelis, were on the flydubai plane, when the co-pilot started to attack the pilot with the crash ax and then tried to crash the flight. Captain Smit Machchhar managed to unlock the cockpit door and passengers then subdued the co-pilot, averting the tragedy.
Backup pilots who happened to be on board stabilized the plane, and there was an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
What Emirati AG said about flydubai co-pilot
Emirati attorney general, Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said that the Omani co-pilot had planned to crash the plane into the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. As per the AG, the 29-year-old intended to cause ‘the greatest possible loss of life.’
While the AG did not identify the co-pilot, people familiar with the matter said it was Hamam al-Hammami, as per New York Times. They added that his embrace of radical Islamist views had prompted Omani authorities to take a closer look at the man.
They found that he’d begun a ‘drift towards extremism and terrorism’ almost a decade ago, when he was a student in Melbourne, Australia. The co-pilot was enrolled at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, between 2015 and 2017. The institute in a statement said that he did not complete his engineering degree, as per NYT.
During his time in Australia Hammami is believed to have developed a fascination for extremist literature, and online content which glorified ‘terrorist organizations and suicide operations,’ as per the Emirati statement. He also reportedly got ‘support’ from groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Islamist movement, the statement added.
The statement noted that the co-pilot took inspiration from the 9/11 attacks and takfir ideology, which allows one Muslim to declare another an apostate. He became interested in a similar attack, the Emiratis found.
