The heroism aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073 becomes more extraordinary by the day. Unfortunately, so does the apparent incompetence that put the passengers in mortal danger in the first place.
We now know that the co-pilot, Hammam al-Hammami, attacked Captain Smit Machchhar with a crash axe (the emergency tool kept inside the cockpit) as the aircraft plunged more than 16,000 feet. The UAE prosecutor general has formally described what happened aboard the Dubai-Tel Aviv flight as an attempted terrorist attack. Passengers and crew eventually overpowered al-Hammami, and a reserve pilot brought the aircraft safely down in Saudi Arabia.
Yet according to multiple reports, including from CNN, ABC, Al Arabiya and the Wall Street Journal, al-Hammami had previously been barred from flying in Oman over security concerns about his alleged radicalisation. Oman Air reportedly removed him from flight training; one account says he was moved to another role. Other reports suggest the concerns centred on time he had spent in Syria.
And then somebody let him fly an aeroplane full of Israelis to Tel Aviv?
