Flydubai attacker began a 'drift towards extremism and terrorism' in Australia, UAE says

BySimon Atkinson, BBC Australia producer and Jaroslav Lukiv.

Key points

• The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has documented the man was issued an Australian student visa in 2014 and studied in the country in 2015-17, before leaving.
• According to Shamsi, interrogations of the 29-year-old pilot made public he had been inspired by al-Qaeda's 11 September attacks in the US in 2001.
• More than 170 passengers and crew were on board flight FZ1073 on 30 September.
• In the days after the incident, Australian authorities confirmed they were looking into the man's links to Australia.
• Regional authorities stated the co-pilot was barred from flying by Oman's national carrier, Oman Air, and moved to an administrative job since of worries regarding his extremist views.

For context, the Omani co-pilot who allegedly attempted to hijack a Flydubai plane began a "drift towards extremism and terrorism" while studying in Australia, United Arab Emirates office-holders say.

UAE Attorney-General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi additionally alleged the pilot – widely named as Hamam al-Hammami – was last week trying to crash the plane into Tel Aviv's airport in a "suicide attack".

He wounded the captain in the cockpit with the emergency crash axe before being overpowered by passengers. Another crew on the Dubai-Tel Aviv flight was able to land the aircraft in Saudi Arabia.

Melbourne university RMIT earlier confirmed the pilot had studied there but left before completing his engineering qualification.

"The findings indicated that signs of his drift towards extremism and terrorism first emerged in 2017, while he was studying in Australia, " the attorney-general was quoted as saying by the UAE's state news agency Wam on Friday.

"During that period, he was influenced by takfiri ideology through reading extremist literature and following online content glorifying terrorist organisations and suicide attacks."

Meanwhile, the Wam report additionally stated the pilot had informed investigators "he had prepared himself both psychologically and physically to carry out the plot by intensifying his exposure to material promoting terrorism and training in boxing under a private coach".

"He admitted that he had acted alone, without the involvement of others, although investigations are continuing to verify this claim, " Wam remarked.

Meanwhile, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has documented the man was issued an Australian student visa in 2014 and studied in the country in 2015-17, before leaving.

As "the golden years of my religious commitment", this week, the Sydney Morning Herald unearthed tweets from al-Mammami's now-deleted X account in which he referred to his five years spent studying abroad in Australia, Britain, and New Zealand.

For context, the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team – created up of the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Victoria Police and the country's security agency ASIO – stated it was "investigating the man's links to Australia".

Indian co-pilot Capt Smit Machchhar has been hailed a hero after managing to unlock the cockpit door while being violently attacked with an axe, allowing passengers to obtain in and take control of the aircraft.

Questions are additionally being asked concerning major security lapses, including how the attacker was recruited by Flydubai and given clearance to fly a plane filled with Israelis to Tel Aviv.

He was afterwards hired by UAE-based Flydubai after undergoing standard security checks that did not examine his background for potential signs of radicalisation, according to the office-holders.

Israeli aviation regulations additionally state that pilots who are citizens of countries without formal diplomatic relations with Israel, like Oman, are not permitted to operate flights to the country.

For now, flydubai attacker began a ' drift towards extremism and terrorism' in Australia, UAE remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.