UAE says Flydubai suspect intended to crash plane into Tel Aviv airport

The Flydubai co-pilot who attacked the plane’s captain with an axe last month intended to crash the aircraft into a passenger terminal at an Israeli airport, according to authorities in the United Arab Emirates.

The suspect, identified as 29-year-old Omani national Hamam al-Hammami, planned to seize control of the 182-passenger aircraft and crash it into the terminal at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv to cause mass casualties, the UAE’s top prosecutor said Friday.

In a statement carried by state-run news agency WAM, the official said the assailant carried out the attack “with the intention of causing the greatest possible number of human casualties.”

Authorities said Hammami was inspired by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S., and had taken two previous flights from Dubai to Tel Aviv to familiarize himself with the route and airport.

The findings shed new light on the Sept. 30 attack, which forced a FlyDubai passenger plane bound for Israel to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after a violent struggle in the cockpit.

The axe-wielding assailant attacked Capt. Smit Machchhar, an Indian pilot with 17 years of flying experience, as the aircraft traveled over a region near Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Despite suffering serious injuries, Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew members to intervene as the plane rapidly lost altitude.

The aircraft plunged an estimated 14,000 to 16,000 feet in less than a minute before passengers were able to restrain the attacker and two reserve pilots took control. The plane safely landed in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

After receiving treatment from hospitals in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, Machchhar later described the struggle during a video call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“When I was on the ground, I realized that the aircraft is going down,” Machchhar said in Hindi, according to a translation by The Associated Press. “And I told myself, ‘This is the last push, Smit. The door is right there.’”

Modi praised the captain for preventing what he described as another Sept. 11-style attack, saying he showed “the highest form of courage.”

In Friday’s statement, prosecutors said Hammami confessed to acting alone and provided a detailed account of his preparations and motives in the presence of his lawyer.