JERUSALEM — Authorities in the United Arab Emirates say the co-pilot who allegedly attacked the captain of a FlyDubai flight bound for Tel Aviv with an axe last month planned to take control of the aircraft and crash it into the passenger terminal at Israel’s main international airport.
The suspect, an Omani national, acted “with the intention of causing the greatest possible number of human casualties,” the UAE’s top prosecutor said in a statement reported Friday by the state-run news agency WAM. Most of the flight’s 174 passengers were Israeli citizens.
According to the statement, the co-pilot “drew inspiration” from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. Investigators also said he had taken two earlier flights from Dubai to Tel Aviv to study the route and become familiar with the airport.
The prosecutor’s office said FlyDubai’s security screenings and professional evaluations had not detected extremist beliefs or attack plans. The pilot was identified by The Associated Press as 29-year-old Hamam al-Hammami.
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Hammami told investigators he acted alone and had no accomplices, the statement said. In the presence of his lawyer, he reportedly gave a detailed confession describing both his motives and the planning and execution of the alleged plot.
The statement further indicated that Hammami may have been radicalized at a mosque in Australia while studying at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2017.
Friday’s announcement from the public prosecutor provided the most detailed account yet of the investigation, which the UAE assumed shortly after the Sept. 30 incident. FlyDubai is owned by the UAE government.
