UAE calls attempt to crash Flydubai plane a terrorist attack

The Attorney General's Office of the United Arab Emirates - the country investigating why an Omani pilot attacked his companion in the middle of a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv that suddenly lost altitude - indicated this Saturday that the co-pilot wanted to carry out a "terrorist action", crashing it with about 170 Israelis on board. To do this, he emphasizes, he used a small axe. It is the first time that the Emirati authorities have described what happened on Wednesday on the plane of its state airline Flydubai as this.

The prosecutor, Hamad Saif Al Shamsi, has indicated that the co-pilot, an Omani national, tried to take control of the aircraft and used an ax, like those usually kept in the cockpit for emergency situations, such as plane accidents, as quoted by the state news agency WAM. Israeli investigators participate in the investigations, along with the Emirati authorities.

The Omani co-pilot, whose identity has not been officially revealed, is called Hammam al Hammami, according to two sources close to the case cited by the Reuters agency. The airline that operated the flight, Flydubai, has simply stated that the circumstances of the incident remain under investigation.

Netanyahu raises the tone

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been raising his threatening tone, ensuring on Friday that his intelligence services are investigating whether the Omani co-pilot “was sent by someone” and that, if so, “he will pay a very high price.” A day before, he hinted, without evidence, at a possible role for Iran, against which Israel and the United States started a war in February, killing its supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.

The attacked pilot, Smit Machchhar, is hospitalized and is considered a hero by his country (India) and Israel, since he used his last strength to open the cockpit door, allowing several Israeli passengers to enter to subdue the attacker and a reserve pilot to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, a nation that lacks diplomatic relations with Israel and that handed over both pilots to its neighbor Emirates, which has had them - and close ones - since 2020.