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Australian authorities have joined the global investigation into the attempted hijacking of flydubai flight FZ103, following news of possible links between the attacker and Australia.
The co-pilot of flight FZ103, who last week allegedly stabbed the captain mid-flight in an attempt to gain control of the aircraft before being disarmed by passengers, appeared to have spent several years studying in Melbourne nearly 10 years ago.
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The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team, a cross-agency team spanning the Australian Federal Police, Victoria Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, is leading the probe.
Reports suggest that the incident’s aggressor, identified as 29-year-old Omani national Hamam al-Hammami, attended RMIT University as an engineering student between 2015 and 2017.
Some news reports, including the UK’s Financial Times, reported that al-Hammami had allegedly visited “radical mosques and extremist websites” during his time in Australia, while the Associated Press reported that he had been banned from flying in his home country due to his “extremist” beliefs.
The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed last week that “at least” two Australians were on board flydubai flight FZ103 during the attempted hijacking incident and emergency landing on Wednesday, 30 September.
The Boeing 737 Max 8 jet, registration A6-FKF, was travelling from Dubai, UAE, to Tel Aviv, Israel, with 174 passengers and six crew on board, when the aircraft descended rapidly from 34,000 feet to 15,000 feet.
The captain on board, Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, was allegedly stabbed by the first officer, who was said to be trying to gain control and crash the aircraft. The weapon has now been identified as a crash axe, routinely kept in the cockpit to assist the pilots in case of an electrical fire.
Despite his injuries, Captain Machchhar successfully made several distress radio calls and opened the cockpit door for assistance.
Several passengers and cabin crew entered the cockpit to restrain the co-pilot. Two flydubai relief pilots, repositioning to Tel Aviv for onward flights, were then able to regain control of the aircraft.
The plane made an emergency landing at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia, approximately 85 minutes after the incident began. All passengers and crew were marked as safe and accounted for.
Captain Machchhar was taken to hospital with serious injuries, including multiple stab wounds.
The AFP has confirmed that an investigation is underway; however, has provided no further information at the time of writing.
They join authorities across the UAE, Israel and Saudi Arabia, who all continue their investigations.
The prosecutor general of the UAE, Hamad Saif al-Shamsi, has now labelled the attack as an attempted “terrorist act”.
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