Flydubai hijacker became 'radicalised' while living in Australia, UAE says

The aircraft was carrying 182 people when al-Hammami was alleged to have attacked Captain Smit Machchhar, and attempted to take over the aircraft’s controls.

Now, the Attorney General of the UAE, Dr Hamad Saif al-Shamsi, said the alleged attacker's "drift" towards terrorism and extremism was rooted in his time as a student in Australia.

Al-Hammami two years in Melbourne as a student at RMIT University until 2017. The institution confirmed his attendance but "did not successfully complete an engineering qualification".

The Attorney General said the former student was influenced by the extremist Islamist ideology takfiri.

Throughout his time in Melbourne, he read extremist literature and online content glorifying suicide attacks and terror groups, Dr Shamsi said.

Initial interrogations of the alleged hijacker revealed he had drawn inspiration from the 9/11 attacks, the lawyer added.

Hammam Al-Hammami spent two years in Melbourne as a student

LINKEDIN: HAMMAM AL-HAMMAMI

In a statement, he said: "The findings indicated that signs of his drift towards extremism and terrorism first emerged in 2017, while he was studying in Australia.

"During that period, he was influenced by takfiri [radical] ideology through reading extremist literature and following online content glorifying terrorist organisations and suicide attacks."

"The idea of carrying out a similar operation using an aircraft became firmly established in his thinking," the statement continued.

The 29-year-old was granted an Australian student visa in 2014 and went on to study in the country between 2015 and 2017, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

The 29-year-old was granted an Australian student visa in 2014

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Earlier this week, unearthed posts on social media show the accused referring to five years studying in Australia, New Zealand and the UK in what he described as "the golden years of my religious commitment".

During his time studying aviation at Buckinghamshire New University, a Twitter account with the name "Pilot Hamam al-Hammami" and the handle @PilotHamam, contained posts endorsing violence against women.

The posts included severe punishments justified by references to Islamic law, homophobic abuse and sexual humiliation.

In one post, a user told a woman: "I'd stomp on your head, wipe the floor with you, make you an example to others, and then divorce you."

In another, the user appeared to draw a comparison between domestic violence and Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

He wrote: "He gave her a pre-emptive slap so she would redefine her boundaries, just as Russia slapped Ukraine to adjust its borders."

The online profile also criticised a man for failing to assault his wife after discovering she had been speaking to another man, writing: “Anyone else would have stomped on her head and made her an example to others.”

The university said it would review his time there, and stressed that he "did not undertake any pilot training at the University.”

A BNU spokesman said: "Our thoughts are with the injured pilot, crew and passengers involved in this incident."