France

Paris, October 10, 2026. The French media are treating the announcement by the Attorney General of the United Arab Emirates, Hamad Saif Al Shamsi, as a detailed indictment. On Friday, October 9, according to his statement, the 29-year-old Omani co-pilot of the Flydubai Dubai-Tel Aviv flight on September 30 "had begun to implement a premeditated terrorist project aimed at taking control of the plane" to crash it into "the passenger terminal of Ben-Gourion Airport", "with the aim of causing the maximum number of victims possible".

The French account focuses first on what the prosecution says about the man. He was inspired by the September 11 attacks and "claimed to have acted alone, without the involvement of other people", the magistrate specifies, adding that the investigation is continuing "to verify this claim". RFI, Sud Ouest, and 20 Minutes also detail his background: influenced by the "takfiri ideology" since 2017 during his studies in Australia, having worked for several companies before joining Flydubai in January 2026, and having already visited Tel Aviv twice "in order to familiarize himself with the flight plan and the airport".

The second key aspect is the issue of control. The prosecutor assures that the co-pilot met "the professional and security conditions required for hiring": license, certificate of good conduct, and usual checks. "None of these procedures revealed any indications suggesting his extremist views." Le Monde, RFI, BFMTV, and France 24 repeat this sentence almost verbatim, without further comment. HuffPost France places it in the context of criticism addressed to Benjamin Netanyahu for security breaches.

The aerial incident is briefly recalled. The Indian captain was attacked in mid-flight; according to 20 Minutes, the prosecutor mentions a safety axe, while Le Monde and BFMTV mention a knife or a stab wound. He was able to open the cockpit door, passengers and crew subdued the attacker, and the plane, which had plummeted sharply, made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. France 24 refers to the profile of Smit Machchhar, presented as a "sky superhero".

The tone remains factual and attributed: "claimed", "according to the prosecutor". The headlines put the conditional of the source in the foreground, and BFMTV recalls that a first Emirati investigation had already mentioned, on Saturday, October 3, a "terrorist act". None of the articles in the corpus cite an independent source from the Emirati prosecution or an Israeli or Omani reaction.