The Flydubai flight co-pilot attacked the commander with an axe in a "terrorist attack", according to the Emirates

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 to try to take control of the aircraft's flight controls and commit a "terrorist attack".

The Emirati attorney general, Hamad Saif al Shamsi, has 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 goal of clarifying "all the circumstances of the incident, the motives, and related connections" and that the 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 government of Dubai.

The plane, which was carrying 174 people on Wednesday morning, mostly 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 commander, 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 Emirates 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 outlets 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 that he had "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. The Moroccan company, however, has stated that last year the man completed theoretical training at the airline, but he was not hired because his application "was rejected". 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 of which his mother is from.

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had 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.