‘Confidential’ email from RMIT university on Hamam Al-Hammami revealedLucy Carroll and Mohammad Alfares
https://i.imgur.com/0HR2GFL.jpegFlydubai co-pilot Hamam al-Hammam, who allegedly wanted to plunge the airliner into the Azrieli towers near Israel’s Kirya military headquarters.
The co-pilot who allegedly tried to hijack a Flydubai flight and crash it into an Israeli skyscraper enrolled in a bachelor of mechanical engineering for two years at RMIT University and failed to complete his degree, as counter-terrorism forces investigate whether he was radicalised on Australian soil.
In a “confidential update” sent to the university’s leadership team on Monday, acting vice chancellor Catherine Itsiopoulos confirmed RMIT was collaborating with the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team over the enrolment of 29-year-old Omani national Hamam Al-Hammami.
Al-Hammami was enrolled at RMIT between 2015 and 2017 but failed to complete an undergraduate bachelor of engineering (mechanical engineering) degree before leaving the university.
“I want to provide a confidential update on a matter that you may have read about in the media over the weekend related to a former student and the Flydubai flight incident,” Professor Itsiopoulos wrote in the internal email obtained by The Australian.
“The individual was enrolled at RMIT between 2015 and 2017 and did not successfully complete any undergraduate qualification with RMIT,” she wrote.
“RMIT has been collaborating with the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team (AFP, Victoria Police & ASIO) with their investigation and importantly, there is no security threat to RMIT.”
The confirmation links Australia to one of the most potentially severe aviation terror plots since the 9/11 attacks.
New Zealand is also looking into Al-Hammami’s education history, with senior police telling The Australian they were investigating his time in the country
NZ Police Assistant Commissioner Michael Johnson told The Australian his force was aware the accused terrorist had also spent time in NZ.
“Police are aware the co-pilot spent time in New Zealand, and we are looking into the time he spent here, alongside other agencies where appropriate, Mr Johnson told The Australian.
Al-Hammami, who used a cockpit crash axe to attack Captain Smit Machchhar mid-flight, told UAE interrogators he joined Flydubai to target Tel Aviv.
His planned trajectory was to execute the captain over Jordan, obtain landing clearance without raising suspicion, and plunge the airliner into the Azrieli towers near Israel’s Kirya military headquarters.
During the struggle inside the cockpit on flight FZ1073, al-Hammami disengaged the engines and forced the plane into a 16,000-foot dive before the wounded captain kicked open the cockpit door. Passengers then stormed the flight deck, restrained al-Hammami, and safely landed the aircraft in Saudi Arabia.
Australian counter-terrorism investigators are now scrutinising al-Hammami’s two-year tenure in Melbourne to determine if he established extremist contacts or began his path to radicalisation while enrolled at RMIT.
The former RMIT student, who lived in Syria during the civil war, had previously posted online messages in support of al-Qaeda and was barred from flying by Omani authorities due to extremist concerns — which has raised questions over how he bypassed aviation vetting protocols to co-pilot commercial passenger jets.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a total security overhaul of foreign civil aviation entering Israeli airspace as federal agents in Australia continue tracing al-Hammami’s movements and network during his time in Victoria.
Authorities have refused to publicly enlarge on any of the terrorist’s Australian links, which emerged among details from a LinkedIn page where he is said the have attended an Australian university.
It remains unclear whether he travelled interstate.
Last week a spokesperson for the AFP said the JCTT is investigating the man’s links to Australia and “an update will be provided at an appropriate time.”
Despite being banned by state carrier Oman Air from flying, sent to a deradicalisation program and sent to a desk job due to his interests in radical ideology, concerns were not raised more broadly, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
According to the WSJ, Israel’s Ministry of Transportation, which oversees foreign carriers, did not vet the Flydubai flight crew, saying FlyDubai agreed in writing to check its pilots’ backgrounds and nationalities.
Security experts told the WSJ the failures on all front was remarkable, given the surveillance and intelligence capabilities of the United Arab Emirates and Israel.
“If this was a dedicated jihadist terror attack, there are multiple levels of failure that happened from an intelligence perspective way before we get to the fact that someone may have missed something in security screening,” Matthew Borie, chief intelligence officer and co-founder of Osprey Flight Solutions, said.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/confidential-email-from-rmit-university-on-hamam-alhammami-revealed/news-story/2b0c17434c6fd68ac0c1d5e535918020
