By Praveen Menon and Alexander Cornwell
SYDNEY/TEL AVIV, Oct 4 (Reuters) – A multi-agency Australian counterterrorism unit is investigating links to Australia of the co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073, who stabbed his captain and then attempted to hijack the plane, a police spokesperson said on Sunday.
The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team – which comprises federal police, Victorian state police and the ASIO intelligence agency – was “investigating the man’s links to Australia,” the Australian Federal Police spokesperson said.
Two sources briefed on the investigation said the co-pilot studied at a university in Melbourne, the capital of the Australian state of Victoria. A third source said he studied at RMIT University around a decade ago. RMIT declined to comment.
The co-pilot of the flydubai flight FZ1073, which was bound for Israel from Dubai on Wednesday, attacked the pilot with an emergency crash axe, the United Arab Emirates prosecutor general said on Saturday, calling the incident a “terrorist attack”.
Flight FZ1073 would have felt like a “vertical roller coaster”, when it plunged 16,000 feet in about 30 seconds before being levelled out and landing safely, according to an aviation instructor who recreated the descent in a flight simulator for Reuters.
CO-PILOT IN CUSTODY IN UAE
Two sources have said the co-pilot is an Omani national named Hamam Al-Hamami. Israeli officials have not named the co-pilot but said that he is from Oman. UAE authorities and flydubai have not publicly disclosed the co-pilot’s identity.
Reuters could not independently reach Al-Hamami, who is in UAE custody, for comment. The UAE has not announced any formal charges against him and it is not known if he has appointed legal counsel. Oman has not commented on the incident.
Disaster on board flight FZ1073 was averted after passengers and crew subdued the co-pilot, who had attacked the captain in what Israeli officials said was an attempt to crash the plane carrying more than 170 passengers and crew. The UAE public prosecutor has said the co-pilot had attempted to take control of the plane.
RADICAL MOSQUES AND EXTREMIST WEBSITES
Most of the passengers on board were Israeli nationals.
A reserve flydubai pilot travelling on the flight took control of the aircraft and landed it at Tabuk airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where the co-pilot was detained by Saudi authorities and later transferred to the UAE on Thursday.
The Financial Times reported on Sunday that Al-Hamami had allegedly visited what it described as radical mosques and extremist websites while in Australia, citing two people familiar with the investigation. Australian intelligence services held a file on the individual, according to the Financial Times.
Reuters could not immediately verify the FT report. The government of Australia did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside normal business hours.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the co-pilot had undergone radical Islamist indoctrination and was clearly suicidal, although he has not said when or where that indoctrination allegedly occurred.
On Sunday he instructed the National Security Council to appoint an examiner to “conduct a thorough review of all security aspects regarding foreign civil aviation to Israel”.
Israel does not have official diplomatic relations with Oman, and Netanyahu has also said pilots from such countries were not permitted to operate flights to Israel. It is not clear how the co-pilot came to be assigned to the flight to Tel Aviv.
(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru, Praveen Menon and Alexander Cornwell; Additional reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Alison Williams and David Holmes)
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