UAE says flydubai co-pilot's cockpit axe attack was an attempted "terrorist" act
The UAE's prosecutor general says the flydubai co-pilot attacked the captain with a crash axe and tried to seize flight FZ1073 — the first time Emirati authorities have called it an attempted terrorist attack.
This is a follow-up to our earlier reports on flydubai flight FZ1073, which diverted to Saudi Arabia after a mid-air cockpit attack on Wednesday.
The co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 attempted to carry out a “terrorist” attack during the flight, UAE Prosecutor General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said on Saturday, according to the state news agency WAM. It is the first time Emirati authorities have described the incident as an attempted terrorist attack.
Al Shamsi said investigations found the co-pilot attacked the captain inside the cockpit with a crash axe — a tool normally kept on the flight deck for emergencies — and attempted to take control of the aircraft. Inquiries are continuing into the circumstances, motives and any wider connections, alongside examination of physical and digital evidence.
The co-pilot was identified as Hammam al-Hammami, an Omani national, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. UAE authorities did not immediately confirm his identity. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had also named him as an Omani national on Thursday, saying he had undergone radical Islamist indoctrination and appeared suicidal, though a motive had not been established.
Disaster was averted on Wednesday after passengers and crew subdued the co-pilot. A reserve flydubai pilot travelling on the flight took the controls and landed the Boeing 737 — carrying 172 passengers and crew — at Tabuk airport in north-western Saudi Arabia, where the co-pilot was detained. Flight-tracking data from Flightradar24 showed the aircraft dropped about 16,625 feet in just over 30 seconds.
Captain Smit Machchhar, the injured Indian pilot, spoke to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi from his hospital bed in Abu Dhabi on Friday — his first public comments since the attack. “In that moment I was fighting for my life,” he said, adding he had been flying for 17 years and a captain for 11.
Netanyahu said on Friday that Israel was examining whether the co-pilot had acted under anyone’s direction, warning anyone involved would pay a “heavy price”. An Israeli official told Reuters that Israeli investigators would take part in the UAE-led investigation. Most of the passengers were Israeli nationals. El Al said on October 2 it had cancelled planned repatriation flights from Dubai after flydubai suspended its Tel Aviv service. Flydubai said the circumstances remained under investigation and it was not in a position to comment further.
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