Flydubai co-pilot attacked captain with crash axe in ‘terrorist act’: UAE

The prosecutor general of the United Arab Emirates has said a Flydubai co-pilot “attempted to carry out a terrorist act” during a flight earlier this week, using a crash axe against the pilot inside the cockpit.

State news agency WAM quoted Hamad Saif al-Shamsi as saying on Saturday that the attacker of Wednesday’s flight FZ1073 tried to take control of the aircraft’s flight controls.

He said the investigation is under way “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”.

The final results will be announced as soon as the necessary procedures are completed, al-Shamsi said.

A crash axe is a tool kept in a cockpit to help pilots cut through the plane in emergencies.

The plane carrying 174 passengers was on its way from the UAE’s Dubai to Israel’s Tel Aviv on Wednesday when a co-pilot wounded Indian pilot Smit Machchhar who opened the cockpit to seek help.

The attacker was not officially identified, but media reports quoting unnamed sources claimed he was Omani national Hamam al-Hammami .

The aircraft briefly plunged about 17,000 feet (5,180 metres) before it was brought back under control by a second paid of new pilots after passengers and crew subdued the attacker.

The flight was diverted and forced to make an emergency landing at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

The co-pilot was arrested by Saudi authorities and handed over to the UAE as it leads the probe.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that ⁠Israel was looking into whether the co-pilot had acted under anyone’s direction, warning that anyone involved would pay a “heavy price”.

Flydubai halted all flights its Israel route after the incident and Israel’s El Al cancelled its scheduled flights, stranding some Israelis in the UAE.

At 22:00 GMT on Friday, the first repatriation flight, operated by Israeli carrier Arkia, arrived at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport from Dubai.