Flydubai attacker began a 'drift towards extremism and terrorism' in Australia, UAE says

Flydubai attacker began a 'drift towards extremism and terrorism' in Australia, UAE says

The Flydubai flight was diverted to Saudi Arabia after passengers managed to take back the aircraft's controls

The Omani co-pilot accused of trying to hijack a Flydubai plane began a "drift towards extremism and terrorism" while studying in Australia, United Arab Emirates officials say.

UAE Attorney-General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi also alleged that the pilot — widely identified as Hamam al-Hammami — was attempting last week to crash the aircraft into Tel Aviv's airport in a "suicide attack".

He injured the captain in the cockpit with the emergency crash axe before being subdued by passengers. Another crew member on the Dubai-Tel Aviv flight was able to land the aircraft in Saudi Arabia.

Melbourne university RMIT had earlier confirmed that the pilot studied there but left before finishing his engineering qualification.

What started as a routine flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv became a struggle for survival when one pilot allegedly stabbed another inside the cockpit.

According to Shamsi, questioning of the 29-year-old pilot showed he had been inspired by al-Qaeda's 11 September attacks in the US in 2001.

"The findings indicated that signs of his drift towards extremism and terrorism first emerged in 2017, while he was studying in Australia," the attorney-general was quoted as saying by the UAE's state news agency Wam on Friday.

"During that period, he was influenced by takfiri [radical] ideology through reading extremist literature and following online content glorifying terrorist organisations and suicide attacks."

The Wam report also said the pilot told investigators "he had prepared himself both psychologically and physically to carry out the plot by intensifying his exposure to material promoting terrorism and training in boxing under a private coach".

"He admitted that he had acted alone, without the involvement of others, although investigations are continuing to verify this claim," Wam said.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has reported that the man was granted an Australian student visa in 2014 and studied in the country from 2015-17 before leaving.

This week, the Sydney Morning Herald found tweets from al-Mammami's now-deleted X account in which he described his five years studying abroad in Australia, Britain, and New Zealand as "the golden years of my religious commitment".

More than 170 passengers and crew were aboard flight FZ1073 on 30 September.

In the days after the incident, Australian authorities confirmed they were examining the man's links to Australia.

The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team — made up of the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Victoria Police and the country's security agency ASIO — said it was "investigating the man's links to Australia".

Indian co-pilot Capt Smit Machchhar has been praised as a hero after he managed to unlock the cockpit door while being violently attacked with an axe, allowing passengers to enter and take control of the aircraft.

Questions are also being raised about major security failures, including how the attacker was hired by Flydubai and cleared to fly a plane carrying Israelis to Tel Aviv.

Regional officials said the co-pilot had been barred from flying by Oman's national carrier, Oman Air, and moved to an administrative role because of concerns about his extremist views.

He was later hired by UAE-based Flydubai after passing standard security checks that did not look into his background for possible signs of radicalisation, according to the officials.

Israeli aviation rules also say that pilots who are citizens of countries without formal diplomatic relations with Israel, such as Oman, are not allowed to operate flights to the country.