ABU DHABI — A UAE investigation into the violent incident aboard a Flydubai flight earlier this week has found that the co-pilot attempted to carry out a “terrorist act” by attacking the captain with a cockpit axe and trying to seize control of the aircraft, the country’s attorney general said.
UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al-Shamsi said the co-pilot involved in Wednesday’s incident used the axe — an emergency tool kept in the cockpit — to attack the captain in an attempt to take control of the aircraft, according to a statement carried by the state-run WAM news agency.
Al-Shamsi said the investigation remains ongoing and will seek to “uncover all the circumstances of the incident, its motives, and related connections.”
The final findings will be announced once the necessary investigative procedures have been completed, he added.
Flydubai flight FZ1073, carrying 174 passengers from Dubai to Tel Aviv, received permission to make an emergency landing Wednesday at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Flydubai previously said that “an altercation occurred in the flight deck” and that crew members secured the aircraft before it diverted and landed safely in Saudi Arabia.
Source: Saudi Gazette