UAE says FlyDubai co-pilot attacked captain with axe in “terrorist” act

The FlyDubai co-pilot who nearly crashed the Tel-Aviv bound flight is an Omani national named Hamam al-Hammami. He was barred from flying by Oman amid concerns he showed signs of extremist views. The incident threw the already hard-hit regional travel industry into crisis.

The co-pilot accused of attacking the captain of an Israel-bound FlyDubai flight used a crash axe against the captain and “attempted to carry out a terrorist attack”, the United Arab Emirates’ prosecutor general said on Saturday. A crash axe is a tool in the cockpit for the pilots to use in an emergency.

Prosecutor general Hamad Saif al-Shamsi said the co-pilot of FlyDubai flight FZ1073 tried to take control of the aircraft and that the investigation continues “to uncover all the circumstances of the incident, its motives, and related connections, in addition to completing technical examinations and examining physical and digital evidence”, according to UAE state news agency WAM.

The co-pilot who nearly crashed the Tel-Aviv bound flight with 182 people aboard is an Omani national named Hamam al-Hammami, according to Associated Press’ sources who also reported, alongside the Wall Street Journal, that he was banned from flying by Oman over concerns that he held radical ideological views.

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