The second pilot of Flydubai, 29-year-old Omani citizen Hamam Al-Hammami, did indeed admit to investigators that he planned a suicide attack, inspired by the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
According to a statement by UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al-Shamsi, the defendant intended to direct the hijacked Boeing 737 Max passenger airliner into the terminal of Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv in order to kill as many people as possible.
Investigation details
The suspect made two flights to Tel Aviv to familiarize himself with the route and the airport. The man passed all necessary security checks before starting work at Flydubai and provided a pilot's license and a certificate of no criminal record.
What happened in the air
The Flydubai passenger plane flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv on September 30 made an emergency landing at the airport in the city of Tabuk in Saudi Arabia after a signal about an attempted hijacking. The cause was a fight in the cockpit, during which the plane sharply lost altitude in just 29 seconds — from 9,410 to 5,105 meters.
On board the Boeing 737 MAX 8 were 174 people, including 27 children, most of them Israeli citizens. According to some passengers, screams were first heard from the cockpit, and then the cockpit door swung open and they saw that one pilot was wounded, his clothes covered in blood. He received first aid, and one of the passengers turned out to be a doctor. Crew members and passengers on the flight also managed to subdue the attacker.
Landing carried out by 'spare pilots'
The landing in Saudi Arabia was carried out, preventing a plane crash, by two other pilots who were on board as passengers. As CNN reports, the plane was landed by two 'spare pilots' who were supposed to operate the next flight.
Earlier, Kursiv wrote that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the flydubai second pilot who attacked the captain of the Dubai–Tel Aviv flight had undergone radical Islamist ideological indoctrination.