UAE says FlyDubai co-pilot attempted to carry out terrorist attack

The co-pilot of a flydubai flight attacked the captain with an axe and tried to seize control of the aircraft in an attempted terrorist attack, the United Arab Emirates prosecutor general Hamad Saif Al-Shamsi said on Saturday. The prosecutor general said the attack took place inside the cockpit of flight FZ1073, which was traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv before being diverted to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia. According to the statement, the co-pilot attacked the captain and attempted to take control of the aircraft. As per Iran International report,investigators are examining the circumstances and motives behind the incident, any possible connections to others and physical and digital evidence, the prosecutor general said, according to state news agency WAM.
The flydubai copilot who attempted to crash a plane full of Israelis earlier this week was previously banned from flying by Oman over concerns that he had been radicalized, a person familiar with the matter said. Despite that, the Omani copilot still flew flydubai’s Dubai to Tel Aviv route, with several US media outlets on Friday naming him as Hamam al-Hammami, 29. On Wednesday, he stabbed the pilot and, according to witnesses, tried to crash the plane in an attempted terror attack.CNN and ABC reported that Oman’s national airline removed the attacker from training over concerns about his extremist views, shifting him to another position at Oman Air. The ABC report, which cited senior intelligence and law enforcement officials, said he was found to be in possession of extremist material in 2024.