Australia investigating Flydubai co-pilot's links to the country | BBC News

Australian authorities investigate Flydubai co-pilot's links to Australia amid counterterrorism probe following attempted plane hijack.

Key Takeaways

The co-pilot's Australian student visa and study period are central to the investigation.
No official confirmation yet on the co-pilot's identity but media reports suggest Omani nationality.
Australian authorities are taking the investigation seriously with a multi-agency counterterrorism team.
The incident is being treated as a terrorist act by UAE prosecutors.
There is scrutiny over intelligence sharing and monitoring of potential radicalization.

What the video covers

Australian counterterrorism team is investigating the Flydubai co-pilot who tried to seize control of a plane.
Police are examining the co-pilot's links to Australia, including his time studying there.
The co-pilot reportedly is Omani national Ham al-Hamami, though this is not officially confirmed.
He was issued an Australian student visa in 2014 and studied engineering at RMIT from 2015 to 2017.
His visa was cancelled in 2019 after he left Australia.
Authorities are investigating whether he was radicalized while in Australia.
The joint counterterrorism team includes Federal Police, Victorian State Police, and ASIO.
Prosecutors in the UAE described the incident as a terrorist operation involving an attack on the captain with an ax.
There is ongoing review about what was known regarding his radicalization and why he was allowed to fly.
Authorities are looking into possible associations and any intelligence that might have been missed.

Chapters

Who is the Flydubai co-pilot under investigation?

The co-pilot is reportedly Omani national Ham al-Hamami, though this has not been officially confirmed by authorities.

What links does the co-pilot have to Australia?

He was issued an Australian student visa in 2014 and studied engineering at RMIT between 2015 and 2017 before leaving the country.

What is the nature of the investigation by Australian authorities?

Australian counterterrorism teams are investigating whether the co-pilot was radicalized while in Australia and examining intelligence sharing and monitoring related to the incident.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

Hello, I'm Keith Goramuthi. Thanks [music] for being with us. Australian authorities have confirmed that a counterterrorism team is investigating the co-pilot who attempted to take control of a Fly Dubai plane. Police are looking into his links with Australia.

Speaker A

They did not identify the co-pilot. A number of media outlets have reported he is Omani national Ham al-Hamami, although there has been no official confirmation of those details. Well, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, citing sources close to the incident,

Speaker A

says that the co-pilot was issued an Australian student visa in 2014 and studied there between 2015 and 2017 before leaving the country. ABC says the joint counterterrorism team will examine whether the man was radicalized whilst in Australia. On Saturday, prosecutors

Speaker A

in the United Arab Emirates described what happened as a terrorist operation and that the co-pilot attacked the captain with an ax before trying to seize control of the aircraft. Let's speak to Andrew Tullet, the European correspondent for the Australian

Speaker A

Financial Review based in London. Thanks for being with us. These details still coming in, but what is, uh, what is known so far on Australian links here?

Speaker A

Hello, how you going? Um, probably a really big surprise that actually to find this Australian connection, um, which sort of been uncovered through, um, Harry Potter's, uh, LinkedIn, uh, profile and, um, yeah, essentially he was approved for a student visa to come and study at

Speaker A

a university in Australia called, um, RMIT Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. It's one of the most sort of best universities in Australia. He studied engineering there for three years 2015, 2016, 2017. Um, left the country some point after that and, uh, his student visa

Speaker A

was, uh, cancelled because he left the country. There was sort of no suggestion of any sort of wrongdoing [snorts] on his part but the was is cancelled in 2019.

Speaker A

But it's, um, sort of come out of surprise about this and and but obviously our authorities are taking it pretty seriously. These joint counterterrorism teams. They're made up of, um, officers from the Federal Police, the Victorian State

Speaker A

Police, and ASIO, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, which is the U equivalent of MI5. So, we'll, um, wait and see where that where that goes. And for many the questions around this whole case are on what was known about whether

Speaker A

he was radicalized and which countries had that information, which companies had that information, why it wasn't shared, and how on earth he was allowed to be flying a plane. So, Australia will come into that review now, won't it?

Speaker A

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, um, from from what people have sort of told me, there's there's no nothing indication, no no indications at this point that, um, he had sort of done anything wrong.

Speaker A

You know, he wasn't, um, um, running around, things like that. And you got to remember too, like about a decade ago, we we in Australia, we had a big problem like you had here in Britain about, um, people getting radicalized with, um,

Speaker A

Islamic State running off to join the caliphate and things like that. So, at the time, um, our intelligence and policing agencies were paying a lot of attention to people becoming radicalized and things like that. So, I'm sure they'll be looking for any possible

Speaker A

connections there that, you know, if if the co-pilot wasn't on any watch lists, then maybe people he associated with might have been and and things like that. So there'll be quite a, um, I imagine good bit of looking about what's

Speaker A

going on whether it's one of these situations in hindsight where you look back and go oh maybe there were little signs there but we sort of didn't really act upon at the time but but at this stage it's it's

Speaker A

it's pretty broad, um, and and just a real sort of, um, [snorts] um, a review of what of what was known.

Speaker A

Andrew Tullet, thank you very much for being with

Topics:Flydubaico-pilotAustraliacounterterrorismstudent visaradicalizationRMITterrorist attackUAEaviation security

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