By Alexander Cornwell and Maayan Lubell
JERUSALEM, Oct 5 (Reuters) – The flydubai co-pilot who stabbed his captain in an alleged attempt to crash the plane last week told UAE interrogators he planned the attack before being hired by the airline, according to two Israeli officials with knowledge of the probe.
A third source briefed on the UAE probe said the co-pilot, an Omani national, had planned to crash Wednesday’s flight into Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv. He had also operated a flight to Tel Aviv earlier this year and intended to hijack and crash the plane then, but opted not to, the source added.
It was not immediately clear why the co-pilot changed his mind on that previous flight, although the co-pilot is thought to have known someone onboard, the source said.
All of the sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation. UAE and Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did flydubai.
The co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073, which was bound for Israel from Dubai last Wednesday, attacked the pilot with an emergency crash axe, the United Arab Emirates prosecutor general has said, calling the incident a “terrorist attack”.
Two sources have said the co-pilot is an Omani national named Hamam al-Hammami. Israeli officials have not named the co-pilot but have said he is from Oman. UAE authorities and flydubai have not publicly disclosed the co-pilot’s identity.
Reuters has not been able to independently reach al-Hammami, who is in UAE custody, for comment. The UAE has not announced any formal charges against him and it is not known if he has appointed legal counsel. Oman has not commented on the incident.
The two Israeli officials said the co-pilot told interrogators that he had applied for a job at Dubai state-owned flydubai after searching for airlines that fly to Tel Aviv.
The third source said that Israel was being continuously updated about the investigation from the UAE.
Disaster on board flight FZ1073 was averted after passengers and crew subdued the co-pilot. The pilot, Indian national Smit Machchhar, survived the attack and has been hailed as a hero for managing to open the cockpit door. The plane was carrying more than 170 passengers and crew, most of them Israeli.
A reserve flydubai pilot travelling on the flight took control of the aircraft and landed it at a regional airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where the co-pilot was detained by Saudi authorities and later transferred to the UAE on Thursday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said pilots who are citizens of countries that Israel does not have diplomatic relations with, like Oman, are not permitted to operate flights to Israel. It is not clear how the co-pilot came to be assigned to the flight to Tel Aviv, and Netanyahu has since ordered a review of foreign airlines flying to Israel.
A multi-agency Australian counterterrorism unit is investigating links to Australia of the co-pilot, who was once enrolled at RMIT University in Melbourne, Victoria. A fourth source said that the co-pilot studied there around a decade ago.
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell and Maayan Lubell; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
