Netanyahu’s Flydubai Assessment Followed by UAE Account of Radicalisation
Netanyahu’s preliminary assessment has been followed by a detailed UAE prosecution account. Investigators are still examining whether anyone else was involved.
Benjamin Netanyahu said on October 1 that preliminary information indicated the Omani co pilot accused of attacking the captain of flydubai flight FZ1073 had undergone Islamist radical indoctrination. Eight days later, UAE prosecutors described an alleged suicide plot targeting Ben Gurion Airport’s passenger terminal.
Speaking on Fox & Friends, Israel’s prime minister said: “We know that he underwent Islamist radical indoctrination.” He stressed that his assessment was preliminary. The flight had left Dubai for Tel Aviv on September 30, 2026, before diverting to Saudi Arabia following the cockpit attack.
What investigators now allege
In an October 9 statement carried by the official Emirates News Agency, Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said investigators traced signs of extremism to the suspect’s time studying in Australia in 2017. Prosecutors said he consumed material glorifying terrorist organisations and suicide attacks and developed an ambition to use an aircraft in a similar operation.
The statement said the suspect had studied the route and airport during two earlier flights to Tel Aviv. It also said recruitment checks had not exposed his extremist views. These are prosecution findings in an ongoing investigation, not a court judgment.
A confession and an unfinished inquiry
According to prosecutors, the suspect attacked the captain with an emergency axe. Other pilots, a cabin crew member and passengers intervened, restrained him and brought the aircraft to a safe landing at Tabuk.
The prosecution said he confessed in the presence of a lawyer and claimed to have acted alone. Investigators were continuing to examine possible accomplices, connections, recordings and technical reports. His account of acting alone therefore remains under examination.
The UAE statement also relayed his allegation that an Australian centre he encountered received support from a Brotherhood linked association. That reported allegation is not evidence that the organisation directed the flight attack.
The historical record on incitement
Separately, German domestic intelligence material documents antisemitic incitement by Yusuf al Qaradawi, a prominent Brotherhood ideologue. Brandenburg’s Interior Ministry reproduces remarks in which he portrayed Hitler’s persecution of Jews as divine punishment and hoped for further punishment by believers. Germany’s federal intelligence reporting also records his calls for Jews’ annihilation.
Britain’s 2015 government review found that individuals closely associated with the Brotherhood in the UK had supported Hamas suicide bombings and other attacks in Israel. These findings document a history of incitement; they do not establish a Brotherhood role in the flight attack, and Netanyahu did not name such a link in his October 1 remarks.
That leaves investigators with a specific task: establishing how the suspect prepared the alleged plot and whether his claimed lone action withstands scrutiny of the evidence collected after the emergency landing.
