00:00Now being joined by Guy Ezreal, who's a diplomatic correspondent. He's joining us from Tel Aviv.
00:05Mr. Ezreal, thank you for joining us on the broadcast. You know, there are some chilling
00:09details that are now emerging as far as the investigation in the Fly Dubai mid-air hijack
00:17bid is concerned. And if Israeli media is to be believed, Israeli media has made these stunning
00:23charges that there was a bid to crash the plane in Israel itself. Could you give us more details
00:28on that? Where exactly did the co-pilot want to crash the plane? Because Israeli media is
00:36claiming that the motive was to down the plane. Thank you very much for having me. First,
00:44I would say that Israeli authorities have been very discreet about this investigation so far,
00:51perhaps not wanting to harm the investigation or not to embarrass their Emirati partners.
00:56So although we had the name already yesterday, Israeli authorities did not want to confirm it.
01:02And now we know the pilot was indeed al-Hammami, again, with an Omani nationality. And the history
01:12of this co-pilot is really staggering because now we can learn, according to these various publications,
01:21that this co-pilot was barred from flying aircrafts while working in Oman because
01:28of his radical Islamist views and the time that he had spent in Syria as a son of a Syrian
01:37mother.
01:39And therefore, it raises some very serious questions as to how is it possible that he was hired by Fly
01:47Dubai,
01:48considering this history? And of course, beyond that, how did he board this flight to Tel Aviv,
01:55considering that the agreements between Israel and the Emirates did not allow Omani nationals or any
02:03country that doesn't have diplomatic relations with Israel to fly those aircrafts. As for crashing the
02:12plane in Israel, that's according to at least an American report, this was what he told investigators.
02:19Apparently, he is cooperating with his interrogation. And I'll remind our viewers that he was moved from
02:27Saudi Arabia to the UAE and stand under some international pressure, I can imagine, by the Americans as well.
02:34So, Mr. Israel, do you think that there was a big security lapse also on the part of Israel? Because
02:40since you also mentioned about the agreement between Israel and the countries, since the co-pilot was an
02:48Omani national, there's no second nationality that he had. How was an Omani pilot allowed to fly a plane
02:55that was heading towards Israel when Oman is not one of the friendly countries, not one of the countries with
03:01which Israel is having diplomatic ties? Yes, I would say no doubt. Yes, it is the responsibility
03:07of the airline to abide by the regulations and by the agreements they have signed with Israel. Nonetheless,
03:15that does not excuse Israel from not double-checking all those pilots, the lists of pilots and passengers
03:21that are traveling to Israel on each of these flights. And a red alert should have been raised when
03:29this pilot boarded the plane. It also raises many questions as to how many previous cases were there
03:34been of such pilots with other nationalities that were flying planes to Israel without Israeli authorities
03:44noticing this. And also, I would say that the Israeli authorities are examining right now whether he was
03:51actually planted in this airline by one of these extremist forces that he was aligned with. And I would mention
04:00another very chilling detail, and that is the fact that according to CNN, on his LinkedIn profile, a few hours
04:10after
04:10that attack, two posts were posted on his profile, one of them a video of a cockpit in Dubai following
04:21Israeli aircraft, Al-Al and Arqia, and also a video of Ayman al-Zohari with a connection to Al-Qaeda.
04:30So you have all those very, very mysterious and alarming signs.
04:38It's unclear whether he posted these posts in advance or someone else posted them on his behalf.
04:46But there you have that connection of his radical Islamist views that he gained in Syria, according to multiple reports.
04:55The fact that he was already barred from flying planes while living in Oman. And then these videos of him
05:04tracking, apparently, Israeli aircrafts and his connection to Al-Qaeda.
05:08So that raises a big question that whether he was a lone wolf or whether there was a larger nexus,
05:15because as you mentioned, that there were two posts that were posted on LinkedIn, having, in fact, hailing the Al
05:23-Qaeda figures.
05:24And in fact, there are also some reports, there are more details that have emerged that how he was barred
05:30from flying by Oman Air because of his extremist views.
05:34And despite that, he was hired by Fly Dubai.
05:38Yes, exactly. Exactly so. And I think this is the main goal of the investigation right now.
05:45It's pretty clear who he was, what were his Islamist views and how he was perhaps a ticking bomb and
05:54how he was allowed to board this plane.
05:56But beyond that, both Israeli and Emirati officials will be looking now to find out what sort of connections did
06:03he have, whether with radical jihadist groups or with Iran, for example, in planning this attack?
06:14Or was he completely a lone wolf in this incident?
06:19It's very unusual for the UAE to overlook such a clear history of this person that I would say not
06:29only that in his belongings radical materials were found.
06:34It is also clear from an initial investigation that he actually posted and also spoke about very radical views towards
06:46Israel.
06:47So he had all the alerts, all the warning signs right there, and someone either at the airline or with
06:55other authorities ignored them.
06:57It's also unclear what sort of information did the Omani provide to Fly Dubai and to the UAE regarding the
07:05history of this pilot, whether there was any initial warning, whether anyone at the airline had any knowledge of his
07:13history.
07:14Right. So what are the changes that Israel has now made after this incident? Any changes to the pilot wetting
07:20process?
07:21Well, this is all still under investigation. We do know that all flights by Fly Dubai to Israel have been
07:30suspended until this investigation is completed, and that has left thousands of Israelis stranded in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
07:40And therefore, what we've seen over recent hours is the rescue flights of Israeli airlines that have been flying empty
07:49to Dubai to collect those Israelis who now have no way to return.
07:54But obviously, this entire process of allowing foreign pilots on board these airlines to fly to Israel will have to
08:03go a complete review of the procedures.
08:07Obviously, whatever was in action now was not sufficient to locate this particular pilot.
08:15Indeed. Guy Azrael, thank you so much for joining us.
08:19Thank you very much.
