Israel came terrifyingly close to a mass-casualty aviation attack that could have killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, and severed the country’s principal air connection with the outside world. This is according to new intelligence from the interrogation of the Omani co-pilot who hijacked his own flight to Tel Aviv. 

The news of Flydubai flight 1073’s miraculous escape from disaster thanks to its heroic Israeli passenger and crew members has been well documented. It was carrying almost 180 people, including 27 children, when its Omani co-pilot, Hammam al-Hammami, attacked Captain Smit Machchar in the cockpit and attempted to seize control of the aircraft. What is now emerging from the investigation makes the episode considerably darker. According to reports of his confession under interrogation, Hammami had been preparing for this act long before he joined Flydubai.

Hammami is reported to have confessed that he had researched airlines flying to Tel Aviv and applied to several of them. He took the Flydubai job with Israel already in mind. During repeated flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv, he gathered information. He had considered carrying out the attack before and, according to interrogation accounts, abandoned or postponed previous opportunities because on one he had a friendship with a crew member he would have been murdering, and on another he had a crisis of confidence.

The failure of this attack should give us very little reason to relax

The failure of this attack should give us very little reason to relax

But now we know the target was also larger than the aircraft itself. Hammami reportedly told investigators that after killing the captain, he had intended to continue towards Israel as though making a normal landing approach, then divert at the last possible moment and crash into Ben Gurion airport. He also considered high-rise buildings in Tel Aviv. His calculation was straightforward and chilling: get close enough before revealing his intention that Israeli fighter aircraft would have no time to intervene.

That explains why Hammami did not attack at........

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