Abstract:
Following an attempted hijacking of a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv last week, mutual accusations between governments have escalated. Australian authorities are investigating the Flydubai attackers' links to the country. This follows an attempted hijacking of a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv last week, which has escalated mutual accusations between governments.
A police spokesman for Victoria's Joint Counter-Terrorism Team said in a statement that it "can confirm that the team is investigating the individual's links to Australia."
On Wednesday, the co-pilot of Flight 1073 attacked the captain with an ax mid-flight in an apparent attempt to crash the plane. The attackers were subdued by passengers on board, mostly Israelis, and the plane landed safely in Saudi Arabia.
Media reports said the co-pilot was named Hamam al-Hammami, an identity confirmed by a person familiar with the matter.
The co-pilot had previously studied in Australia, where he allegedly visited radical mosques and extremist websites, according to two people familiar with the investigation. The above-mentioned person added that the Australian intelligence agency had established a "dossier" on this person.
Israeli officials have confirmed that he is an Omani citizen, but none of the multiple governments involved in the investigation have officially released his name. The person is currently under investigation and detained in the UAE. Since the flight was registered in the UAE, the UAE had jurisdiction over the flight.
The revelations add to an escalating recrimination between countries as all parties seek to determine who was responsible for security failures that preceded the attempted hijacking.
According to a person familiar with the matter, the co-pilot had previously been banned from flying by Oman because he was suspected of being radicalized, including that his social media account was allegedly filled with anti-Israel text and images.
Emirati authorities were frustrated by the failure of Omani and Australian authorities to share intelligence about the co-pilot before the attack, according to sources in the Gulf.
A person familiar with the UAE investigation said: "Unfortunately, Oman and Australia have only now begun to share this information with us." Omani authorities declined to comment.
The pilot who was attacked, Indian citizen Smit Machchhar, is recovering in a hospital in the United Arab Emirates and spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday.
According to a recording of the call released by Netanyahu's office, Machchhar recalled that his co-pilot asked to suspend work to pray, prayed behind him in the cockpit, and then began hitting him on the head with an emergency axe.
The emergency ax is a heavy-duty tool placed in the cockpit that can be used by pilots to break glass or break open the fuselage structure in an emergency.
The cockpit door was locked when the attack occurred, but the captain said that despite his injuries, he managed to twist the door handle, allowing passengers and crew to rush into the cockpit and subdue the attacker.
In Israel, last week's joy and relief have turned into anger and recriminations over apparent intelligence failures — and the question of how an apparently radicalized Omani citizen evaded Israeli security clearance.
According to Israeli regulations, a citizen from a country with which Israel has no diplomatic relations should have been barred from flying to Israel. A person familiar with the investigation said that as a rule, the Flydubai crew list was submitted to Israeli authorities before the flight took off.
The Ministry of Transport, which oversees and regulates foreign airlines flying to Israel, has been heavily criticized by Israeli media for failing to vet Flydubai staff.
Israeli Transportation Minister Miri Regev from Netanyahu's Likud party said that Israel's foreign and domestic intelligence agencies - Mossad and Shin Bet - are responsible for ensuring the security of foreign airlines flying to Israel.
Regev said in an interview with Kan 11 TV station on Saturday: "It is the intelligence agency that should be responsible for the review, and we are not an intelligence agency."
Further fueling public anger, a May 2024 State Auditor General report noted loopholes in security regulations related to international travel to Israel, as well as a lack of coordination between government agencies on the issue.
Recommendations by the state auditor general to "address this problem and develop an overall policy" have never been advanced by Netanyahu's government.
Amid mounting public pressure, Netanyahu said late Sunday that he had directed the head of the National Security Council to "appoint a reviewer to conduct a comprehensive review of all safety issues involving foreign civil aviation flying to Israel."
Related articles:
Sources said that the co-pilot of flydubai originally planned to fly the plane into the Israeli airport terminal
Dubai Air co-pilot attack exposes security review loopholes in multiple countries
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