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Ben Gurion Airport

Flydubai Terrorist Planned to Crash the Plane Into Ben Gurion Airport's Terminal; Mossad Joins the Investigation

New details from the interrogation of Hamam al-Hammami, the Flydubai co-pilot who attempted to hijack a flight from Dubai to Israel, indicate that the terrorist intended to crash the plane into Israel's Ben Gurion Airport and cause mass casualties, Israeli officials said on Sunday, October 4. For this reason, the officials said, al-Hammami began his hijacking attempt only over Jordan, planning to continue toward Israel so the flight would appear routine.

The terrorist is suspected of having planned to approach landing as usual and, only in the final seconds—once it was impossible to intercept the plane—crash it into the terminal. The plot was foiled thanks to Captain Smit Machchhar's ability to open the cockpit door, allowing the passengers to retake control from the hijacker. In his interrogation, al-Hammami said he had planned the attack before Flydubai hired him: "I searched and checked which airlines fly to Tel Aviv and therefore I chose Flydubai. I tried to be hired by all the companies. I planned the attack before I was hired."

Israeli Mossad agents and aviation experts are taking part in the investigation, alongside Saudi and Omani intelligence officials and at least two American intelligence representatives, a senior Emirati official said. The investigation is focused on the planning of the attack by the 29-year-old co-pilot, who, the Emirati official said, planned to crash the aircraft into a high-rise building in Israel in a plot modeled on the September 11 attacks, with Tel Aviv's Azrieli Towers among the targets under consideration. Al-Hammami had previously been fired by Oman Air over his extremist views and barred from working as a pilot in his home country; he later moved to Morocco, visited Syria, and was eventually hired by Flydubai. (INN/VFI News)

“Heavenly Father, we thank You for sparing everyone aboard that flight and for the courage of the captain and passengers who stopped a massacre at Ben Gurion Airport. We pray that You give wisdom to the investigators from Israel and the nations now working together, so that every accomplice and every plot like this one is exposed. Please guard the skies over Israel and every traveler coming home to the land You promised. We ask You to turn the hearts of those who plan such evil, or remove them before they can act.”