An Omani co-pilot attacked the captain during a flight.
Passengers subdued him, and off-duty pilots landed the plane.
UAE officials detained two colleagues connected to the attacker.
The authorities of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have detained two co-pilots of Maldives who were working with flydubai. The arrests were made in connection with the September 30 security incident aboard flight FZ1073.
Police arrested state-backed flight crew members on October 3. Investigators are looking more closely into the background and friends of Omani co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami, who attacked Smit Machchhar, according to a report by News18.
Officials said the two Maldivian crew members were close friends and colleagues with al-Hammami. They worked together, shared flight shifts, and may have lived in the same apartment building.
Earlier, Attorney General of the UAE Hamad Saif al Shamsi said that the co-pilot had intended to seize the Dubai-Tel Aviv plane and crash it into a terminal at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport.
State news agency WAM reported that prosecutors found the suspect had taken two earlier flights to Tel Aviv to get familiar with the route and the airport.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reported that Omani authorities investigated potential extremist ties linked to the co-pilot after sources identified him as Hamam al-Hammami.
The Incident On The Plane
The incident occurred on September 30 when a plane bound for Tel Aviv Airport had to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. When the plane was flying over Saudi Arabia, the co-pilot allegedly attacked the captain with a crash axe, an emergency tool normally stored in the cockpit.
During the fight, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 dropped quickly from about 35,000 feet to 16,000 feet in just two minutes. This sudden dive put heavy strain on the plane and damaged part of its tail section.
The crisis ended after the injured Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door. Passengers and crew members rushed in and subdued al-Hammani. Two off-duty pilots who were traveling as passengers took over the controls and safely landed the plane at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia. The passengers were later flown to Ben Gurion Airport.
