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Investigators in the United Arab Emirates said Saturday that the co-pilot of a flydubai flight bound for Israel attempted to carry out a "terrorist act" during the Wednesday flight, attacking the captain with the aircraft's emergency axe in a bid to seize control before passengers and crew overpowered him and forced an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
The UAE's state news agency WAM cited Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi as saying initial findings showed the co-pilot "attacked the captain in the cockpit with the emergency axe and tried to take control of the aircraft."
The report did not disclose the co-pilot's nationality, though a Saudi source confirmed to media that he was Omani.
Media outlets have separately reported he had previously been barred from flying in Oman over concerns about extremist views.
The plane's Indian captain, Smit Machchhar, was wounded in the assault but managed to force open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to subdue the attacker.
According to data from the flight-tracking website Flightradar24, the aircraft lost roughly 17,000 feet of altitude within about a minute during the struggle before the crew diverted and landed safely in Saudi Arabia.
Machchhar described the attack to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call, saying the co-pilot struck him in the back of the head after asking for time to pray. "My first thought was that there was catastrophic damage to the aircraft and something is not right," he said.
"But then after that the blows kept coming one after the other. That's when I realised that it's not the aircraft, it's the other guy who was in the cockpit with me."
Machchhar said his memory of the incident was not entirely clear because of his injuries, but recalled prying the door open only for the attacker to shut it again. "I had that one last fight left in me," he said, adding that he believed he faced certain death otherwise. "That's when I pushed against everything."
Netanyahu invited Machchhar to visit Israel as a guest of honor, telling him in a recorded call: "You are a true hero of the brave peoples of India and Israel and you are a hero of the entire world."
Separately, UAE Deputy Prime Minister Hamdan bin Mohammed visited the captain at his hospital bedside, where the two were photographed together.
The co-pilot remains in custody in the UAE. Several media outlets identified him overnight as Hamam al-Hammami.
The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Omani authorities had previously barred him from flying over suspicions he had adopted radical ideological views. CNN, citing two sources familiar with the matter, reported he had been removed from a position at Oman's national airline last year.
Al Arabiya, citing an informed source, reported that Omani authorities had concluded the co-pilot held extremist views, and said he had spent time in Syria, raising concerns he may have been influenced by radical groups there.
ABC News, citing senior intelligence and law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation, reported the suspect had allegedly been found in possession of extremist materials while a trainee pilot.
Netanyahu said the suspect had undergone what he called "Islamist radical indoctrination" and had attempted to crash the aircraft. US President Donald Trump said Thursday that if Iran were found to be linked to the attack, the country would be "hit very hard."
Flights between the UAE and Israel, which were suspended following the attack, resumed Saturday, with Israel's airport authority confirming the first flight carrying Israelis home from the UAE had landed in Tel Aviv.
Netanyahu said Israel would examine how the co-pilot had been cleared to operate flights to the country.
"We have constraints that say that you can't have pilots from countries that don't have diplomatic relations with Israel," he told Fox News. "Obviously he was able to go through that."
The UAE established diplomatic relations with Israel under the 2020 Abraham Accords, while Oman does not have formal diplomatic ties with Israel.
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