The Attorney General of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Hamad Saif al Shamsi, has confirmed that the co-pilot of the Dubai-Tel Aviv flight attempted to carry out a terrorist attack. The Omani attacker, interrogated by the Emiratis and identified by various sources as Hamam al-Hammami, attacked the captain of the aircraft, the Indian pilot Smit Machchhar, with an ax to try to take control of the plane.
The 174 passengers - the vast majority of them Israelis - and the eight crew members of Flydubai flight FZ 1073 were saved this Wednesday thanks to Machchar who, being attacked, opened the cabin door. Thus, several Israeli passengers who realized what was happening entered the cabin and managed to subdue the aggressor. A pilot who was off duty on the flight took control of the damaged plane, which had registered a dizzying and abrupt descent in the most dramatic moments of the flight. "It was terrifying," Almog Italie, one of the lucky passengers, told us. The aircraft made an emergency landing at the Saudi airport in Tabuk, where the pilot was treated for his serious injuries while the co-pilot was detained. Both are located in the UAE.
"Investigations into the incident that occurred aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073 determined that the co-pilot had attempted to carry out a terrorist action," the UAE attorney general said in a statement released this Saturday by the state news agency WAM.
"Crash the plane"
According to the investigation, Al-Hammami used an emergency ax to attack his companion and try to control the plane's system. Yaniv Hayoun - one of the Israeli passengers who broke into the cabin - revealed that he saw "the terrorist trying to destroy the control panel to crash the plane." According to this already famous plumber, after neutralizing the attacker, he raised the levers of the uncontrolled plane instinctively, after remembering a television series about plane crashes. "Yaniv Hayoun is a hero. I am a big fan of his," said US President Donald Trump in a video, adding that if he wants he can be his plumber.
The announcement by the Emirati prosecutor's office comes after reports last night in several media - the first was The Wall Street Journal - according to which al Hammami was prohibited from flying in Oman due to suspicions of his extremist ideology.
The investigation, led by the UAE and in which Israel participates according to Reuters, must clarify whether it planned the attack alone or not.
In this sense, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this Friday that they are investigating whether it was sent by someone. In that case, he warned, "whoever sent it will pay a very high price."
"With the passage of time, the picture is becoming clearer. Yaniv and his heroic companions avoided a disaster on the scale of 9/11. The attacker experienced Islamist radicalization. He intended to crash the plane with all its passengers on board," he declared after what Israel sees as a clear attempt to attack Israelis.
Hours before the Emirati attorney general's confirmation of the attempted terrorist attack, the advisor to the UAE president, Mohamed Bin Zayed, was the first in his country to officially point it out. Praising the Indian captain, Anwar Gargash said that he "embodied, in the face of a dangerous terrorist act and a potential catastrophe, the true meaning of bravery and responsibility."
