New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered a case to probe last month's mid-air attack by a co-pilot on Captain Smit Machchhar aboard a flydubai flight, officials said on Saturday.
The case has been registered under the relevant provisions of the Anti-Hijacking Act, 2016; and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, they said.
Indian national pilot Machchhar was stabbed and seriously injured by his co-pilot in the cockpit of flydubai flight FZ1073, while travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv on September 30 "in an apparent attempt to hijack or cause it to crash," the officials said, citing a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the NIA on October 9.
Meanwhile, UAE Attorney-General Counsellor Dr Hamad Saif Al Shamsi on Friday (local time) said an investigation into the incident involving the flydubai flight revealed that the aircraft's Omani co-pilot had allegedly planned a terrorist attack to seize control of the plane and crash it into the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, with the aim of causing maximum casualties, according to UAE state news agency WAM.
The Attorney-General said the 29-year-old suspect had begun carrying out the alleged plot during a flight scheduled to travel from Dubai to Tel Aviv on September 30, 2026.
According to WAM, the investigation traced the suspect's ideological and professional background and found that signs of his alleged radicalisation first emerged in 2017, when he was studying in Australia. During that period, he was influenced by extremist literature and online content glorifying terrorist organisations and suicide attacks.
The suspect reportedly said his decision to pursue a career in aviation was linked to this objective.
(With inputs from PTI & ANI)
