UAE authorities say the stabbing attack on a plane bound for Israel was an attempt at terrorism

(Seoul, Istanbul = Yonhap News) Reporter Ji-heon Lee, Correspondent Dong-ho Kim = Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced on the 3rd (local time) that the first officer who attacked the captain with a weapon on a Fly Dubai flight bound for Israel was investigated as having attempted a terrorist attack.

According to WAM news agency, UAE Prosecutor General Hamad Saif Al-Shamsi defined this incident as an attempted terrorist attack and said that the first officer, who was carrying out the attack during the flight, attacked the captain with an emergency ax and tried to take control of the plane's controls.

An emergency ax is an escape device kept in the cockpit of an airplane to be used in emergency situations such as a crash.

In relation to this, the U.S. ABC reported that the first officer admitted that he intended to intentionally crash the aircraft.

According to reports, the co-pilot, identified as Hamm Al Hammami, a 29-year-old Omani national, has been extradited to the UAE and is being investigated by local authorities.

Under international aviation law, jurisdiction over crimes committed on board an aircraft is given priority to the country in which the aircraft is registered, and accordingly, Alhammami was extradited to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, flydubai's nationality, on the 1st.

Al-Hammami is said to have cooperated with the UAE authorities' investigation and made statements to the effect that he wanted to bring down the plane in Israel.

UAE investigative authorities have defined this incident as a terrorist attempt and are investigating the specific circumstances of the incident, motive, and whether he was an accomplice.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defined this incident as an act of terrorism by an Islamic radical and claimed, "He tried to crash the plane with passengers on board."

Israeli investigators are also participating in the UAE-led investigation, an Israeli government official told Reuters.

Meanwhile, Arab media outlet Al-Arabiya reported, citing sources, that Al-Hammami was tainted by extremist ideology during his stay in Syria.

It is said that he was previously banned from flying in Oman due to concerns about his radical ideological tendencies.

After this disposition, he continued to work in an administrative position at Oman Air, but later transferred to the UAE airline flydubai, and how he was hired as a first officer on the highly security-sensitive UAE-Israel route is still under investigation, ABC reported.