Suspect in FlyDubai incident was previously identified as security risk: Officials

The co-pilot of the FlyDubai plane who allegedly attacked the plane’s captain and attempted to crash a flight bound for Israel on Wednesday is an Omani national who was previously suspended from flying by Oman Air after being identified as a security risk, according to senior intelligence and law enforcement officials.

Multiple sources familiar with the investigation identified the suspected attacker as 29-year-old Hamam Al Hammami.

The officials told News that Al Hammami, while working as a co-pilot trainee for Oman Air in 2024, was found to be in possession of extremist materials. The suspect was allowed to continue working for the airline in an administrative role, the sources said.

United Arab Emirates Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi on Saturday said the aircraft’s co-pilot had attempted to carry out a terrorist act and that he began executing his plan during the flight by assaulting the pilot inside the cockpit using a crash axe and attempted to seize control of the aircraft’s controls, according to WAM state news agency.

This is the first confirmation by UAE authorities that the co-pilot had attacked the captain and identified the weapon used as a crash axe. Previous UAE statements had described the incident as a security incident and said an investigation was underway to determine whether it involved terrorist activity or prior planning

The attorney general stressed that investigations are still ongoing to establish all the circumstances and motives surrounding the incident, as well as any related links. He added that technical examinations and the analysis of physical and digital evidence are also being completed, with the final findings to be announced once the necessary procedures have been concluded.

Officials investigating the incident are still trying to determine how the suspected attacker was subsequently permitted to fly for FlyDubai and how he ended up as the first officer in the cockpit of a plane headed for Israel, the sources said.

Al Hammami — who was transferred Thursday from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates — is said to be “cooperating” with authorities investigating the incident and has indicated that his intent was to crash the aircraft in Israel, according to sources briefed on the investigation.

Representatives of FlyDubai, Oman Air and the Omani Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from News.

FlyDubai issued a statement earlier Friday, attributed to its chief executive officer, saying that, at the request of the authorities, FlyDubai had “temporarily suspended operations to Tel Aviv until further notice,” and saying “a full official investigation, led by the relevant authorities and fully supported by flydubai, is underway.” 

A disaster was averted when the flight’s captain, Smit Machchhar, fought back and a number of passengers subdued and restrained the attacker, who had sent the plane into a rapid dive.

One of the passengers, Israeli plumber Yaniv Hayoun, said he pulled back on the controls to steady the plane until a third pilot, who was traveling in the passenger cabin, took over. The flight eventually landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

One of the passengers who ran to the front of the plane, Dr. Shota Musaev, told News in an interview this week that the attacker — who was bloodied and restrained on the floor outside the cockpit — told him he was from Oman. Musaev said that at one point the suspect asked Musaev to kill him.

“He said, ‘Kill me please, kill me please,'” Musaev said.

Israeli officials are expected to be on the ground and involved in the questioning of Al Hammami, sources said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said that the suspected attacker, who he didn’t name, had undergone “Islamist radicalization.”

“He came to crash the plane with all passengers on board,” Netanyahu said in a video released by his office. “We are investigating whether he was sent, and whoever sent him will pay a very heavy price.”

Netanyahu also again heaped praise on Hayoun and the other heroic passengers for preventing a “tragedy like 9/11.”

A threadbare internet biography page believed to belong to the suspect indicated that he had studied aviation management at a British university and engineering at an Australian university.

A source at the Buckinghamshire New University confirmed that Al Hammami completed a three-year distance-learning course and graduated with a degree in aviation management in 2023.  The source stressed that Al Hammami did not take any pilot training at the school.

A representative for the school in Australia declined to comment and referred an inquiry from News to the Australian federal police.

This story has been updated.