The United Arab Emirates public prosecutor said on Friday that the co-pilot accused of attacking the captain of a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv on 30 September intended to fly the aircraft into the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion International Airport.
In a statement carried by the state news agency WAM, the prosecutor said the suspect, an Omani national, acted “with the intention of causing the greatest possible number of human casualties”. Most of the 174 passengers were from Israel.
The statement said the suspect had made two earlier flights from Dubai to Tel Aviv to become familiar with the route and the airport. It said he confessed and told investigators he acted alone.
The captain, Smit Machchhar, was attacked with a crash axe in the cockpit and managed to open the door to alert the crew. Passengers detained the suspect. Two reserve pilots then made an emergency landing at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia.
The UAE took over the investigation soon after the incident.
