New Zealand Opens Investigation
New Zealand authorities have launched an inquiry into the flydubai co-pilot who allegedly attempted to hijack an Israel-bound plane, following confirmation that he underwent flight training in the country about a year after leaving a degree program in Australia. The police assistant commissioner, Michael Johnson, revealed on Tuesday that the individual was in New Zealand on a student visa for 175 days, from November 30, 2018, to May 23, 2019. Johnson stated that the co-pilot was in the country to complete a part of his flight training for a UK-based company that is no longer operational in New Zealand. The police are now scrutinizing his activities during his stay, Johnson added.[S1]
Passengers and crew stepped in on 30 September to stop an alleged hijacking attempt, preventing what could have been a catastrophe. The co-pilot, Hamam al-Hammami, 29, was reportedly trying to seize control of a Tel Aviv-bound flight carrying 182 people. The UAE's prosecutor general said Hammami, an Omani citizen, wielded a crash axe during the attempted terrorist attack and stabbed the pilot while in the air. Officials in Israel and the region believe he had initially intended to carry out such an attack in July but delayed it.[S1][S2]
International Scrutiny of Hammami's Background
Authorities in New Zealand have opened their own inquiry into Hammami as part of a wider international push to piece together his history, understand his motivations, and establish whether he operated alone. Australian security agencies began looking into the matter over the weekend after discovering that Hammami had lived in the country as a student for roughly two years, leaving in 2017. RMIT University in Melbourne said he departed without finishing his engineering degree. A since-removed social media account thought to be his shows a selfie of him as a student with other teenagers at a food court in Melbourne's CBD.[S1]
The UK's Telegraph cited a post from a now-deleted X account apparently belonging to Hammami, in which he called his years studying abroad the golden years of his religious commitment and implied that his religiosity declined after he went back to Oman. On Wednesday, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Australia's foremost Jewish body, urged a thorough probe into Hammami's ties within the country. Its co-chief executive, Alex Ryvchin, said in a statement that Australia has seen extremist literature, hate preachers, and recruiters, making it vital to learn who knew this alleged terrorist, who shaped him, and what traces of his violent ideology remain.[S1]
Captain's Account of the Attack
The flight's captain, Smit Machchhar, who also underwent training in New Zealand, recounted on Saturday that shortly after Hammami left his seat to pray, he felt a powerful blow to the back of his head. In a phone conversation with Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Machchhar described how the blows continued, leading him to realize it was not the aircraft but the other guy who was in the cockpit with him. Despite his injuries, Machchhar managed to unlock the cockpit's security door, enabling passengers to subdue Hammami. A reserve flydubai pilot on the flight took control and landed the aircraft at a regional airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where the co-pilot was apprehended by Saudi authorities.[S1]
