Flydubai co-pilot identified as an Omani national

Second pilot identified

Three people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press identified the co-pilot as Omani national Hamam al-Hammami.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the man was subject to a flight ban in Oman due to concerns that he had been radicalized. It is unclear whether Flydubai was aware of this when it hired him.

The circumstances of the incident, the perpetrator's motives, as well as the examination of physical and digital evidence are still the subject of an ongoing investigation, said the prosecutor, quoted by the Emirati agency WAM.

Attack on board the plane

The attack occurred on Wednesday on board flight number FZ1073, carrying 170 passengers and several crew members. According to media reports, most of the passengers were Israeli. After 2.5 hours of travel, the machine suddenly lowered its flight by over 5.2 thousand meters. meters. The plane was diverted to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, where it made an emergency landing.

The captain, Indian citizen Smit Machchhar, reported that during the flight he was attacked by the co-pilot in the cockpit, but managed to activate the door opening mechanism. Thanks to this, a group of passengers were able to overpower the attacker.

"A True Hero"

In an interview with CNN, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared this incident to the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11, 2001. He also noted that before the incident, the Israeli services had no intelligence information about the planned attack.

The head of Israel's government said on Friday that his country was investigating whether the co-pilot acted on behalf of a third party, and announced that anyone involved in the incident would pay a "heavy price." He described Captain Machchhara as a "true hero".

Israel claims that the choice of an Emirati airlines plane with Israeli passengers on board could have been an attempt to attack relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.