Australian Authorities Investigate Terror Pilot's Local Islamist Ties

Australian authorities are investigating the local connections of Hammam al-Hammami, the co-pilot who attempted to hijack a FlyDubai flight bound for Israel before being subdued by passengers. According to ABC, al-Hammami, an Omani citizen, studied in Australia on a student visa from 2015 to 2017 before leaving the country. His visa was canceled in 2019, not due to security concerns, but because he ceased his studies. Australia's Federal Police have launched a counter-terrorism investigation to determine if he may have become radicalized during his time in Australia.

The United Arab Emirates officially classified the incident on the Dubai to Tel Aviv flight as a terrorist attempt on October 3. UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi stated that the co-pilot attacked the captain with an emergency axe in the cockpit and tried to seize control of the Boeing 737 MAX 8. Previous reports indicated that after attacking the captain, al-Hammami attempted to damage the aircraft's control systems to cause a crash.

Al-Hammami had previously been grounded by Oman Air due to concerns over his extremist views, after which he was moved to administrative duties. He later joined FlyDubai. How he passed security screenings to become a co-pilot on flights to Israel is currently under investigation. CNN also discovered materials related to Al-Qaeda and numerous posts indicating radical religious views in al-Hammami's deleted social media accounts.