DOMINANT ANGLE
London weighs the accusations from the Emirati prosecutor's office with cautious language: "allegedly" and "UAE says" frame the story of a co-pilot who allegedly wanted to crash his plane on Ben-Gourion.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi claims the 29-year-old Omani co-pilot wanted to crash flight FZ1073 into a terminal at Ben-Gurion Airport in a suicide attack.
- 02
According to the prosecution, the first signs of a drift towards extremism date back to 2017, during his studies in Australia; RMIT University confirms he studied there without completing his engineering degree.
- 03
According to The Independent, the plane dropped 16,000 feet in 30 seconds before two other pilots took control and landed in Saudi Arabia.
ANALYSIS
London, 10 October 2026. The British press is treating the Flydubai FZ1073 flight incident as a case of accusation, reporting on the evidence without taking a stance. The Independent headlines: "FlyDubai co-pilot planned to crash flight into Ben Gurion Airport, UAE says". The BBC uses "allegedly" to qualify the attempted hijacking.
The two headlines echo the statements made on Friday, 9 October, by the UAE's Attorney General, Hamad Saif al-Shamsi. According to him, the 29-year-old Omani co-pilot, whom the BBC says is "widely named" Hamam al-Hammami, had embarked on a premeditated terrorist plot to seize control of the 30 September flight. His goal would have been to crash the plane into a terminal at the Israeli airport in a "suicide attack". The prosecution claims that he used two previous flights to Tel Aviv to familiarize himself with "the flight route and the airport", and that the project was inspired by the 11 September 2001 attacks.
The account emphasizes the preparation. According to the prosecutor, as reported by the state agency WAM, the suspect claims to have prepared himself "psychologically and physically", by consulting content that glorifies terrorism and taking boxing lessons with a private coach.
The Australian dimension occupies a notable place. The prosecutor situates the first signs of drift towards "extremism and terrorism" in 2017, during his studies, under the influence of a takfiri ideology drawn from extremist readings and online content glorifying suicide attacks. The BBC adds that Melbourne's RMIT University confirmed that he had studied there, but left before completing his engineering degree.
Regarding the events on board, The Independent specifies that the Boeing 737 was in Saudi airspace when the co-pilot attacked the commander with an axe, before being subdued. The plane dropped 16,000 feet in 30 seconds; two other pilots took control and landed it in Saudi Arabia. The BBC writes that the commander was injured with the emergency axe and that the suspect was subdued by passengers.
The two media outlets stick to the prosecution's version and its source, WAM, without mentioning any independent corroboration or reaction from Israel or Oman in the available excerpts.
