By Eman Abouhassira, Maha El Dahan and Alexander Cornwell
DUBAI/TEL AVIV, Oct 3 (Reuters) – The co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073, which was bound for Israel, attempted to carry out a “terrorist attack” with an axe during the flight, the United Arab Emirates prosecutor general said on Saturday.
The co-pilot was identified as Hammam al-Hammami, an Omani national, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. A second source briefed on the investigation confirmed the co-pilot’s name. UAE authorities did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation of his identity.
Disaster was averted on Wednesday after passengers and crew subdued the co-pilot, who had attacked the captain in what Israeli officials said was an apparent attempt to crash the plane carrying more than 170 passengers and crew.
While Emirati authorities and the airline have not publicly identified the co-pilot, Israeli officials have previously said he is an Omani national. Oman has not commented on the incident.
“Investigations into the incident involving flydubai flight FZ1073 found that the co-pilot had attempted to carry out a terrorist attack,” Prosecutor General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said in a statement carried by the UAE’s state news agency.
The co-pilot attacked the pilot inside the cockpit with a crash axe and attempted to take control of the aircraft, the prosecutor general said.
A crash axe is typically kept in the cockpit for use during emergencies such as crashes.
The investigation into the flight FZ1073, including the suspect’s motives, is ongoing, and the findings will be released once the “necessary procedures” have been completed, the prosecutor general said. The UAE is leading the investigation. The airline is owned by Dubai’s government.
MOST PASSENGERS ON FLIGHT WERE ISRAELI
The prosecutor general’s comments were the first by Emirati investigators to describe the incident as an attempted terrorist attack. Following the release of the prosecutor general’s statement, Anwar Gargash, a senior adviser to the UAE president, said on X that the Gulf country had zero tolerance for terrorism and would show no leniency toward extremist rhetoric.
Flydubai said the circumstances surrounding the incident were still under investigation and that it was not in a position to comment further, a spokesperson said on Saturday.
In his first public comments on the incident, flydubai Chief Executive Ghaith al Ghaith on Friday said that the flight diverted after a “safety incident” inside the cockpit.
Most of the passengers on board were Israeli nationals.
A reserve flydubai pilot travelling on the flight took control of the aircraft and landed it at Tabuk airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where the co-pilot was detained by Saudi authorities.
The co-pilot was transferred from Saudi Arabia to Abu Dhabi on Thursday. A source briefed on the investigation told Reuters on Friday that Israeli officials were expected to question the co-pilot in the UAE. The source declined to say which Israeli agency or authority would take part.
An Israeli government official told Reuters on Friday that Israeli investigators would take part alongside Emirati authorities in the UAE-led investigation, seeking to determine what happened and examine the suspect’s motives and background.
Israel does not have official diplomatic relations with Oman, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said pilots from such countries were not permitted to operate flights to Israel. It was not clear how the co-pilot came to be assigned to the flight to Tel Aviv.
On Friday, Netanyahu said that Israel was looking into whether the co-pilot had acted under anyone’s direction, warning that anyone involved would pay a “heavy price”.
Netanyahu said a day earlier that the co-pilot had undergone radical Islamist indoctrination and was clearly suicidal, though he said a motive had not yet been established.
The aircraft dropped about 16,625 feet in just over 30 seconds while flying over Saudi Arabia on its journey from the UAE to Israel, according to flight-tracking data from Flightradar24. The route is popular among Israeli travellers.
(Reporting by Eman Abouhassira and Maha El Dahan in Dubai and Alexander Cornwell in Tel Aviv; Writing by Eman Abouhassira and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Toby Chopra)
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