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, causing mass casualties, Israeli officials said on Sunday.
According to the officials, for this reason, al-Hamami only began his hijacking attempt over Jordan. The plan was to continue flying toward Israel to make it appear as a routine flight to Ben Gurion.
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, thus allowing the passengers to retake control from the hijacker.
At the same time, Channel 13 reported that al-Hamami said in his interrogation that 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," he reportedly told his interrogators.
Israeli Mossad agents and aviation experts are taking part in the investigation into the incident. According to a report by Smadar Perry in Ynet, citing a senior Emirati official, Saudi and Omani intelligence officials are also participating in the investigation, along with at least two American representatives from intelligence agencies.
According to the report, the investigation is focused on the planning of the terror attack allegedly carried out by 29-year-old co-pilot Hamam Al-Hamami. The Emirati official claimed that Al-Hamami did not merely intend to crash the aircraft, but planned to crash it into a high-rise building in Israel, in a plot modeled on the September 11 attacks. The target reportedly under consideration was the Azrieli Towers in Tel Aviv.
The report also said that Al-Hamami had previously been fired by Oman Air because of his extremist views and was barred from working as a pilot in his home country. He subsequently moved to Morocco, visited Syria, and was eventually hired by Flydubai.