Flydubai flight: Omani co-pilot was planning a suicide attack on Tel Aviv airport (prosecutor)

The Omani co-pilot of the flydubai flight to Tel Aviv, who attacked the pilot causing an emergency landing in late September in Saudi Arabia, was planning a suicide attack on Ben Gurion airport, the UAE prosecutor said Friday.

The investigation revealed that the Omani co-pilot "had begun to implement a premeditated terrorist plot to take control of the aircraft and use it to carry out a suicide attack against the passenger terminal at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport, with the aim of causing the greatest possible number of casualties," Emirati Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said in a statement.

The co-pilot was inspired by the September 11 attacks, and "claimed to have acted alone, without the involvement of other people," he added, specifying that the investigation was continuing "in order to verify this claim."

This 29-year-old man began to be influenced by "takfiri ideology," a term that generally refers to jihadists or supporters of radical Sunni Islam, from 2017 while he was studying in Australia, he explained.

He then worked for several airlines in different countries before joining flydubai in January 2026.

He then met all "the professional and safety requirements for employment, such as holding a pilot's license, presenting a certificate of good conduct and submitting to the required checks", according to the prosecutor.

"None of these procedures revealed any evidence to suggest his extremist views," he added.

Before September 30, he had flown twice to Tel Aviv "in order to familiarize himself with the flight plan and the airport," the prosecutor said.

According to the prosecutor, the investigation revealed that he attacked the captain by surprise with a spare axe.

The latter resisted before being heard by the pilot on duty who was on board to ensure the return flight and intervened, managing, with the help of a member of the cabin crew and several passengers, to subdue the aggressor.

"The captain of the return flight and his co-pilot regained control of the aircraft, altered its trajectory and landed safely at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia," the prosecutor recounted.

The prosecutor's office continues "to investigate the possible involvement of accomplices or other links," the statement concludes, announcing that "new findings will be communicated in due course."

AFP