Two days after the Flydubai incident jolted the aviation world, there is still no official word on who was the attacker and what led to the mid-air emergency on a Tel Aviv-bound flight . reports have now raised fresh questions about the Omani co-pilot, including his alleged past links to Syria and concerns over extremist views While a regional investigation is underway.
Co-pilot identified as Hamam Al-Hammami: Al Arabiya, citing sources, identified the Omani co-pilot involved in the Flydubai incident as Hamam Al-Hammami. Al-Balawi was known to have pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, the report added. The aircraft was subsequently diverted and made an emergency landing at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk, northwestern Saudi Arabia. All passengers and crew survived the incident. Machchhar has since received praise from leaders in India and Israel for his actions during the incident.
One of the videos included images of former al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri and Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who carried out a 2009 suicide bombing that killed nine people, including seven US CIA officers and contractors.
Possible Iran link: US President Donald Trump told reporters that early information he had received suggested a link between the incident and Tehran, but did not elaborate. Al-Qaeda-linked content on LinkedIn: Al-Hammami’s LinkedIn profile had only two posts, both uploaded in quick succession on Wednesday, around nine hours after the incident, a CNN report said.
