The United Arab Emirates’ attorney general said the co-pilot of a flydubai flight to Israel had planned a “terrorist act” and used the cockpit’s emergency axe to attack the captain, the official UAE news agency WAM reported on Saturday.
The news agency quoted Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi as saying that according to the initial findings of an investigation, “the co-pilot had attempted to carry out a terrorist act” and had “attacked the captain in the cockpit with the emergency axe and tried to take control of the aircraft”.
Separately, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had earlier showered the Indian captain with praise for saving the plane, invited him to Israel as a guest of honour.
“You are a true hero of the brave peoples of India and Israel and you are a hero of the entire world,” Netanyahu said in a video his office released of his telephone conversation with Captain Smit Machchhar.
UAE Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, also the country’s defence minister and the crown prince of Dubai, visited Smit at a hospital.
In a post on X, he described him as the “pilot who embodied the highest degrees of courage, responsibility, and care for human life”.
The defence minister added: “From us, and from the leadership of the nation, he has our full appreciation and praise.
“We are proud that he is part of our team… part of the story of our nation… and part of what the UAE stands for… a nation of compassion… a nation of peace… and a nation of life.”
Barred from flying
The co-pilot accused of attacking the captain of a flydubai flight to Israel had previously been barred from flying in Oman over concerns about his extremist views, multiple media outlets reported.
Scrutiny into the alleged assailant — who was identified in the reports as Omani national Hamam al-Hammami — and his motives has intensified after Wednesday’s drama aboard a Dubai-Tel Aviv route that officials say narrowly avoided catastrophe.
During the flydubai flight, the jet’s Indian captain was assaulted by his co-pilot but he managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to overpower the attacker and force an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Omani authorities had banned the pilot from flying over concerns he had adopted radical ideological views, citing people familiar with the matter.
CNN, citing two sources familiar with the matter, reported the pilot was removed from a job at Oman’s national airline last year over concerns about extremist views.
Al Arabiya, citing an informed source, reported that Omani authorities determined that the co-pilot held extremist views.
The broadcaster said he had also spent time in Syria, raising concerns he may have been influenced by radical groups there.
ABC News, citing senior intelligence and law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation, reported the suspect had allegedly been found in possession of extremist materials while he was a trainee.
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