The co-pilot of the Flydubai flight attacked the captain with an axe in a "terrorist attack", according to the Emirates
The Emirati prosecution is investigating the motivation for the incident on the plane that was going to Israel and if there are "related connections"
BarcelonaThe United Arab Emirates public prosecution confirmed this Saturday that the co-pilot of the Flydubai plane that was traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday attacked the pilot inside the cockpit with an emergency axe in an attempt to take control of the aircraft's flight deck and commit a "terrorist attack".
The Emirati Attorney General, Hamad Saif al Shamsi, stated that investigations into the incident have revealed that the co-pilot "initiated the execution of a terrorist act," reports the state news agency WAM. However, he said that investigations are continuing with the aim of clarifying "all the circumstances of the incident, the motives, and related connections" and that final conclusions will be announced once the necessary procedures are completed. The Emirati prosecution is leading the investigations because Flydubai is an airline owned by the Dubai government.
The plane, which was carrying 174 people on Wednesday morning, most of them Israelis, had to divert to Saudi Arabia after the co-pilot tried to crash it. Before crossing the border with Jordan, the aircraft made a sharp turn and lost a lot of flight altitude in a very short time.
The captain, Smit Machchhar, who was seriously injured, has reconstructed the events and explained that, from the ground, he managed to open the cockpit door. Between him and five other passengers, they were able to subdue the attacker and take control of the plane, which ended up landing in Tabuk, in the northwest of Saudi Arabia.
"Extremist ideas"
Although the Emirati authorities have not confirmed the identity of the co-pilot, several media outlets and also Israel have reported that he is a citizen of Oman. This Saturday, media such as the Saudi channel Al Arabiya and the American CNN reported, citing anonymous sources, that the attacker had been disqualified from flying in Oman because the country's authorities discovered he held "extremist ideas".
According to these reports, the man left Oman after being removed from the state airline and later worked for a few months at Royal Air Maroc. According to CNN, he had only been an employee of Flydubai for eight months. The sources explained that he could have been influenced by "radical groups" in Syria, the country his mother is from.
On Thursday, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, already said that it was believed the suspect had been subjected to "radical Islamist indoctrination". For the moment, Flydubai has insisted that it cannot comment while the incident remains under investigation.