TEL AVIV — The pilot who tried to bring down an Israel-bound flight had been planning a 9/11-style attack by crashing into the country’s main airport in Tel Aviv, a Middle Eastern official has told NBC News. Identified by NBC News as Hamman al Hamami, the pilot told investigators on Monday that he wanted to evade Israel’s defenses and crash into the Ben Gurion Airport or another building, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. An Omani citizen, multiple sources from three agencies briefed on the investigation and a diplomat in the Middle East told NBC News identified al-Hammami.
Authorities have not officially released the identity. He is currently being questioned by investigators in the United Arab Emirates where he was transferred to from Saudi Arabia where the plane was diverted to after last week’s dramatic midair incident on the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv. Emirati authorities said Saturday that the pilot attacked his fellow pilot, Capt.
Smit Machchhar, with a crash ax and attempted to take control of the aircraft’s flight controls. The passenger jet which was carrying 174 mostly Israeli passengers then plunged plummeted 14,000 feet in just 29 seconds, according to data from aviation tracking service Flightradar24, causing panic onboard. Machchhar, an Indian national and a veteran pilot of 17 years, said in a call on Friday with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his fellow pilot told him he was going to pray, something he didn’t consider unusual as observant Muslims pray five times a day.
A few minutes later, he said he felt a strong blow to the head. Initially, Machchhar said he thought there was “catastrophic damage to the aircraft,” but once the blows kept coming he “realized that it’s not the aircraft, it’s the other guy who was in the cockpit with me.” In a separate call with Indian Prime Narendra Modi, also on Friday, Machchhar said he managed to open the cockpit’s door on the second attempt, despite the blows raining down. And thankfully, people were waiting to pounce back,” he said.
Focus has shifted onto the missed security signals ahead of the flight. Citing sources familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that al-Hammami had “previously been banned from flying by Oman over concerns he had adopted radical ideological views.” It is unclear how a citizen of Oman, an Arab country with now diplomatic relations with Israel, was allowed to fly the plane carrying Israelis to Tel Aviv. According to Israeli law, airlines must provide information about passengers and crew members, including their names and nationalities, up to 48 hours before a flight.
Netanyahu has called on the head of the National Security Council to appoint an examiner to review “all security aspects” of Israel’s civil aviation in the aftermath of the incident. Elsewhere Vice President JD Vance underlined the concerns potential security failures.
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