UAE prosecutors said Friday that the Omani FlyDubai co-pilot who tried to hijack a Dubai-to-Israel flight on September 30 confessed to planning a suicide attack on Ben Gurion Airport’s passenger terminal, inspired by the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Attorney General Hamad Saif Al-Shamsi said 29-year-old Hamam Al-Hammami had been carrying out a premeditated terrorist plot to seize the aircraft and cause the greatest possible loss of life. Al-Hammami attacked his captain, Smit Machchhar, with an emergency axe in the cockpit, sending the Boeing 737 MAX with more than 180 passengers aboard into a plunge of nearly 5,000 meters in 30 seconds before off-duty crew and passengers subdued him and made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Investigators said Al-Hammami told them he became a pilot hoping to use an aircraft in a terrorist attack, that he began drifting toward extremism in 2017 while studying in Melbourne, Australia, and that he had used two earlier flights to Tel Aviv to familiarize himself with the route and airport. He previously worked for Oman Air and Royal Air Maroc before joining FlyDubai in January. Prosecutors said he met employment screening requirements and no procedure flagged his views, and that they are still looking into whether anyone else was involved.