A flydubai co-pilot, Hamam al-Hammami, meticulously planned a 9/11-style terror attack, intending to kill the captain and crash an Israel-bound flight into a Tel Aviv building. His brutal assault on the captain was thwarted by the captain's resistance and the intervention of the crew and passengers. The investigation revealed prior visits to Israel and an aborted attempt, with the co-pilot now facing the death penalty in the UAE.

A flydubai co-pilot, Hamam al-Hammami, meticulously planned a 9/11-style terror attack, intending to kill the captain and crash an Israel-bound flight into a Tel Aviv building. His brutal assault on the captain was thwarted by the captain's resistance and the intervention of the crew and passengers. The investigation revealed prior visits to Israel and an aborted attempt, with the co-pilot now facing the death penalty in the UAE.

A flydubai co-pilot, Hamam al-Hammami, meticulously planned a 9/11-style terror attack, intending to kill the captain and crash an Israel-bound flight into a Tel Aviv building. His brutal assault on the captain was thwarted by the captain's resistance and the intervention of the crew and passengers. The investigation revealed prior visits to Israel and an aborted attempt, with the co-pilot now facing the death penalty in the UAE.

Hamam al-Hammami, the flydubai co-pilot who tried to crash an Israel-bound flight from Dubai, originally wanted to kill the captain and continue flying normally before crashing into a building in Tel Aviv, according to reports by Channel 12 and Ynet.

The reports claimed that the Omani co-pilot's initial plan was to dispose of the captain, continue the flight as normal and receive necessary landing clearances from air traffic controllers before crashing into a building and inflict as many casualties, including those on board and on the ground, similar to the 9/11 attack.

Al-Hammami brutally attacked Indian captain Smit Machchhar in the head with a crash axe and tried to jam the aircraft's autopilot system. However, his plan was foiled when Machchhar resisted and ensured that the cockpit door was unlocked. This allowed passengers and cabin crew to subdue the co-pilot before the flight was stabilised by additional pilots.

According to Channel 12, this was the reason why the attacker waited until the aircraft entered Jordanian airspace to attack the captain.

It was recently revealed that Al-Hammami arrived in Ben Gurion Airport several times in recent months after joining flydubai. He had earlier planned to carry out the attack in July, but aborted the mission because one of the crew members was his friend.

Considering the gravity of the crime, he is likely to get death penalty in the UAE, a senior Emirati source told Ynet. Israeli experts, Mossad agents and US intelligence officials are in Abu Dhabi to join the probe.

The 29-year-old, who joined flydubai just eight months ago, tried to get hired by all airlines that flew to Israel. 

"I looked into which airline flies to Tel Aviv. That’s why I chose flydubai. I planned it even before I was hired," Channel 13 quoted him as saying.

"The dream was to crash into Ben-Gurion [Tel Aviv] airport," he said, claiming that his plan was to crash into Azrieli Towers, reported Ynet.