Oman banned him from flying over extremist views. Flydubai handed him the controls, axe included.

Oman had banned a Flydubai co-pilot from flying over allegedly extremist views. He was hired by the Emirati carrier Flydubai, and on 30 September, on a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, he attacked the captain with the emergency axe from the cockpit and tried to take control of the plane.

The prosecution of the United Arab Emirates said that the investigation into flight FZ1073 showed the co-pilot had begun carrying out a terrorist act.

"The co-pilot began carrying out a terrorist act." (translated)

Prosecutor Hamad Saif Al Šamsi added that the investigation would try to establish the circumstances of the incident and the attacker's motive, and analyse material and digital evidence.

There were 174 people on the plane, mostly Israeli citizens. The co-pilot, a citizen of Oman, attacked the Indian captain Smit Mačar with the emergency axe, a mandatory part of cockpit equipment, and injured him. The wounded captain nevertheless managed to open the cockpit door.

"I told myself I had to gather the last atoms of strength and open the door from the inside." (translated)

Passengers then burst into the cockpit, overpowered the co-pilot and tied him up with his own plastic ties and the headphones for the multimedia system. A Flydubai reserve pilot was also on board and took over the controls, and the plane landed safely at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Airport in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

Who the co-pilot is and why he was flying at all

According to media reports, he is an Omani citizen named Hamam Al Hamami, which has not been officially confirmed. He was born in the United Arab Emirates, his father was Omani and his mother Syrian, and he spent most of his life in the UAE.

The American newspaper The Wall Street Journal reported that Omani authorities had banned him from flying in Oman over allegedly radical Islamist views, while CNN reported that he was dismissed last year from Oman's national airline over the same views. Saudi television Al Arabiya reported that he spent some time in Syria, where he was also said to have been radicalised.

How a man whom one country had stripped of his flying licence over extremist views got a co-pilot job at another airline and sat at the controls of a plane with 174 passengers remains an unanswered question.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said immediately after the incident that the attacker was radically Islamist indoctrinated and had tried to crash the plane. According to him, after the passengers subdued him, the attacker shouted at the crew to kill him.

"Kill me, kill me!" (translated)

Netanyahu concluded from this that the attacker was suicidal and most likely intended to crash the plane.

After the incident, the co-pilot was taken to the United Arab Emirates, where Israeli officials are also expected to question him. The injured captain was first taken to hospital and then by helicopter to Abu Dhabi. According to the Indian embassy, he is now in stable condition.