The United Arab Emirates said on Friday that an Omani co-pilot of a flydubai flight had planned a September 11-style suicide attack on a Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight.

The UAE attorney general said the co-pilot planned to seize the flight on September 30 and crash it into a terminal at Israel's Ben Gurion airport. The plan was inspired by the 2001 attacks in the United States, prosecutors believe.

The suspect used two earlier flights to Tel Aviv to familiarize himself with the route and the airport, according to the state news agency WAM. During the attempt, the jet plunged 16,000 feet in 30 seconds before the fellow pilot thwarted the plan.

The Wall Street Journal identified the suspect as Hamam al-Hammami. Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said he had drifted toward extremism from 2017 while studying in Australia.

The suspect had worked for Oman Air and Royal Air Maroc before joining flydubai in January 2026. The investigation began on October 1 and is continuing.