Flydubai co-pilot planned attack on Tel Aviv airport, says UAE prosecutor
The UAE's top prosecutor says the Omani co-pilot, now in custody in the UAE, had drawn inspiration from Al-Qaeda's Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the US.
The co-pilot of a Flydubai aircraft, who attacked the captain during a flight to Tel Aviv, intended to crash the plane into the airport, according to the UAE top prosecutor. The incident, which occurred last week, left the majority of passengers, who were mostly Israeli, in a state of panic as the plane made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
Upon landing, the passengers, the crew, and other pilots worked together to subdue the co-pilot and ensure the safety of everyone on board. The prosecutor found that the co-pilot had been radicalized through extremist literature and online content, and had used his two previous flights to Tel Aviv to plan the attack. Despite meeting the necessary professional and security requirements, the co-pilot's extremist views and intentions were not detected during the screening process.
The incident has raised concerns about the security measures in place for flights to Israel, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a thorough review of all security aspects of foreign civil aviation to the country.
Written by urgent.news from Free Malaysia Today's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
