Flydubai flight’s Omani co-pilot tried to crash aircraft in Saudi desert after hijack attempt was foiled, reports Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera.
The paper says, Omani co-pilot Hammam al-Hammami attacked Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar to take control of the plane and crash it into a building at Tel Aviv in Israel.
Al-Hammami’s original plot was to kill Flight Captain Smit Machchhar, fly the plane to Tel Aviv, and crash it into one of the city’s skyscrapers, the report claimed, citing Israeli intelligence.
According to the newspaper, Hammami realised his original plan could not be carried out, so he decided to crash the plane in the desert.
He switched off the autopilot and pushed the control stick. Within 30 seconds, the aircraft lost 16,000 feet of altitude and was on its way to hit the ground.
Al-Hammami tried to damage the controls of the aircraft as well before the passengers overpowered him. Yaniv Hayoun, a plumber by profession, pulled the control stick towards him and prevented the plane from losing altitude further.
Later, the two off-duty pilots took control of the aircraft. The pilots safely landed the plane. Captain Smit Machchhar was rushed to the hospital, and his co-pilot was handed over to the authorities in Saudi Arabia.
Israel has described the incident as a terror attack and is probing how a pilot from Oman — with whom Israel has no diplomatic relations — was cleared to fly into Tel Aviv, flouting its security policy.
