FlyDubai co-pilot sought to crash plane into Tel Aviv’s main airport: UAE

Courtesy CBC, Oct 09, 2026

UAE prosecutor statement says co-pilot ‘drew inspiration’ from 9/11

The axe-wielding co-pilot who attacked the captain of a FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv last month intended to seize control of the airplane and fly it into the passenger terminal at Israel’s main international airport, authorities in the United Arab Emirates said Friday.

The suspect, an Omani national, did so “with the intention of causing the greatest possible number of human casualties,” the UAE’s top prosecutor said in a statement carried by the state news agency WAM. Most of the 174 passengers on the flight were from Israel.

The statement said the co-pilot “drew inspiration” from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States and used two previous flights from Dubai to Tel Aviv to “familiarize himself with the flight route and the airport.”