A Flydubai pilot attacked his fellow pilot using a crash axe and tried to take control of the aircraft’s flight controls in an attempted terrorist attack, officials in the United Arab Emirates said Saturday.
Emirati officials are leading investigations into the mid-air incident, which occurred Wednesday on a flight carrying 174 mostly Israeli passengers from Dubai to Tel Aviv. A crash was averted, according to eyewitnesses and Israeli officials, when crew and passengers were able to enter the cabin and subdue the alleged attacker.
“Investigations into the incident aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073 revealed that the co-pilot attempted to carry out a terrorist act,” UAE Attorney-General Hamad Saif al Shamsi said in an update on Saturday.
“The co-pilot began executing his plan during the flight, attacking the captain inside the flight deck using a crash axe and attempting to take control of the aircraft’s flight controls,” he said.
The pilot suspected of carrying out the attack, an Omani citizen, was transferred from Saudi Arabia to Abu Dhabi on Thursday, the Saudi Interior Ministry said. The statement said his health had “improved,” but his medical condition was unclear.
Multiple news outlets are reporting the suspect’s name as Hamam al-Hammami. Authorities have not officially released the identity, and NBC News has not confirmed the name independently.
The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that the pilot had “previously been banned from flying by Oman over concerns he had adopted radical ideological views.”
Oman Air did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the pilot accused of initiating the attack worked for them.
Al Shamsi said investigations were ongoing to “establish the full circumstances, motives, and any links related to the incident.”
Israeli Government Spokesman David Mencer said Friday that Israeli investigators would “join their Emirati counterparts in investigating this attempted mass murder and establishing precisely what happened, his motives and background.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday: “As time passes, the picture becomes clearer: the attacker had undergone Islamist radicalization. He came to crash the plane, along with its passengers.”
He did not say how he reached that conclusion, but added: “We are investigating whether he was sent, and whoever sent him will pay a very heavy price.”
Netanyahu’s spokesman Doron Spielman told NBC News that the alleged attacker “talks on his social media about killing Jews.”
The alleged victim of the axe attack, Indian national Capt. Smit Machchhar, spoke for the first time Friday from a hospital in Abu Dhabi.
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Flydubai pilot speaks out follow mid-air attack
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Machchhar was widely praised for his efforts to prevent the plane from crashing, opening the cockpit door and allowing passengers and crewmembers to rush in.
Speaking from his hospital bed, Machchhar said he had been “severely injured” and “could sense that the aircraft was going down.”
“I was acting for my own life, but at the same time, I knew I couldn’t let all of them die,” he said on a video call released by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, adding that he told himself to “give just one last push” to the cockpit door.
Machchhar was injured in his stomach and head, his uncle Kishor Machchhar told NBC News in a video call from Mumbai on Friday. “We were very much worried about him,” he said, adding the family is hoping the captain will be discharged in two weeks.
A Flydubai spokesperson said Saturday: “We recognise that there are many questions at this stage; however, the circumstances surrounding the incident are still under investigation. We are therefore not in a position to comment further beyond our published statements.”
The spokesperson added: “We remain fully committed to supporting the ongoing investigation and are in close coordination with the relevant government authorities and regulators.”
President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday that there would be renewed strikes against Iran if it was behind the attack.
“You just ask them,” he said. “They know what happened. They’ll be hit very hard.”
There are no indications that Iran directed or was involved in the attack, a senior U.S. official briefed on the Israeli investigation told NBC News.
