Australian authorities are investigating the links between the country and a Flydubai co-pilot who attempted to take control of a plane travelling to Israel.
The co-pilot is alleged to have attacked the captain with a crash axe during a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv before passengers managed to overpower him and successfully take control of the plane.
The Australian authorities have not identified the co-pilot, who has been named by multiple media outlets including Reuters, CNN and The New York Times as Hamam al-Hammami.
The prosecutor in the UAE has said it is investigating the incident and any possible motives.
In a statement to the BBC, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) confirmed its investigation into “the man’s links to Australia”.
The investigation involves state police and the country’s security agency, it said, adding that an update would be “provided at the appropriate time”.
Sources familiar with the case, who have spoken to Australian media, have said the co-pilot was issued a student visa in 2014, and studied in Australia between 2015 and 2017, until he left the country.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) said the co-pilot’s student visa was cancelled in 2019 as he was no longer enrolled in a course, making him ineligible for it.
Counter-terrorism officials will look at whether the man was radicalised in Australia, the ABC reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he was an Omani national.
The flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv on 30 September was carrying more than 170 passengers to Israel.
Two and a half hours into its journey, the plane plunged 17,000ft (5,200m) when the Omani co-pilot attacked the pilot with a crash axe, the United Arab Emirates prosecutor general has said.
The pilot flying the plane, Capt Smit Machchhar, described how he was lying on the floor injured when he realised the plane was sinking and he had to act, explaining: “I told myself to go for one last push to open the door from inside”, which allowed the passengers in.
Two reserve pilots then landed the plane safely in Saudi Arabia.
Machchhar, an Indian national, was taken to a nearby hospital before being airlifted to Abu Dhabi, where he is reported to be in a stable condition.
The co-pilot was arrested after the emergency landing and is being questioned by Saudi authorities, according to Netanyahu.
The UAE’s attorney general, Hamad Saif Al Shamsi, said on Saturday investigations were under way to establish the circumstances, motives and any links related to the incident.
He said investigations into the incident revealed that the co-pilot attempted to carry out a “terrorist act”, according to the country’s state news agency.
In the days since the attack more details have come to light about the co-pilot’s employment history.
While working at another airline, Oman Air, US media reported that Al-Hammami was removed from flight training because of concerns over his radical views, and was given another role at Oman’s national airline.
It is also known that, from 2020, he was studying on a distance-learning course run by Buckinghamshire New University in the UK.
He graduated with a degree in aviation management in 2023, the university said. It added he did not take any pilot training at the school.
By BBC
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