Officials: FlyDubai incident suspect was previously known security risk
Representational image. Collected.
The FlyDubai co-pilot accused of assaulting the captain and trying to bring down an Israel-bound flight had previously been prohibited from flying by Oman Air after being flagged as a security concern, according to senior intelligence and law enforcement officials.
Several sources familiar with the investigation identified the suspected attacker as 29-year-old Omani national Hamam Al Hammami.
According to the officials, Al Hammami was working as a trainee co-pilot for Oman Air in 2024 when he was discovered with extremist material. Although he was barred from flying, the sources said, he was permitted to remain employed by the airline in an administrative position.
UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said Saturday that the aircraft's co-pilot had sought to carry out a terrorist attack. Citing state news agency WAM, he said Al Hammami began implementing the alleged plan while the aircraft was airborne by assaulting the captain inside the cockpit with a crash axe and trying to take control of the plane.
The remarks were the first confirmation from UAE authorities that the co-pilot had attacked the captain and that a crash axe was involved. Earlier statements from UAE officials had referred to the incident as a security event and said authorities were examining whether it constituted a terrorist act or had been planned in advance.
Al Shamsi said the investigation was still in progress and that authorities were seeking to establish the full circumstances and motives behind the incident, as well as determine whether there were any related connections. Investigators were also conducting technical examinations and reviewing physical and digital evidence. The final conclusions will be released after the required investigative procedures are completed, he said.
Investigators are meanwhile seeking to establish how Al Hammami was later cleared to fly for FlyDubai and how he came to occupy the first-officer's seat aboard an aircraft traveling to Israel, according to the sources.
Al Hammami was transferred from Saudi Arabia to the UAE on Thursday. Sources briefed on the investigation said he has been cooperating with investigators and indicated that he intended to crash the aircraft in Israel.
FlyDubai said Saturday that it understood there were numerous questions surrounding the incident, but stressed that the circumstances were still being examined.
"We are therefore not in a position to comment further beyond our published statements," the airline said in a statement obtained by ABC News. FlyDubai added that it remained fully supportive of the investigation and was working closely with relevant government authorities and aviation regulators.
Oman Air and the Omani Embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment from ABC News.
FlyDubai said Friday that, at the request of authorities, it had "temporarily suspended operations to Tel Aviv until further notice." The airline also said a comprehensive official investigation, being conducted by the relevant authorities with FlyDubai's full cooperation, was underway.
A potential disaster was prevented after the flight's captain, Smit Machchhar, confronted the attacker while several passengers rushed to restrain him after he allegedly forced the aircraft into a steep dive.
Israeli passenger Yaniv Hayoun, a plumber, said he grabbed the aircraft's controls and pulled them back to stabilize the plane until a third pilot, who was traveling as a passenger, entered the cockpit and assumed control. The aircraft eventually made a safe landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Shota Musaev, another passenger who went toward the front of the aircraft, told ABC News in an interview this week that the suspect was injured and being held down on the floor outside the cockpit when Musaev encountered him. According to Musaev, the man said he was from Oman.
Musaev said the suspect at one point asked him to kill him.
"He said, 'Kill me please, kill me please,'" Musaev recalled.
Sources said Israeli officials are expected to travel to the UAE and participate in questioning Al Hammami.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that the suspected attacker, without naming him, 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 praised Hayoun and the other passengers for their actions, saying they had prevented a potential "tragedy like 9/11."
A sparse biography page on the internet, believed to belong to Al Hammami, indicated that he had studied aviation management at a university in Britain and engineering at a university in Australia.
A source at Buckinghamshire New University confirmed that Al Hammami completed a three-year distance-learning program and earned a degree in aviation management in 2023. The source emphasized that he did not receive pilot training at the university.
An Australian university representative declined to comment and directed ABC News to the Australian Federal Police for further inquiries.
(Source: abcnews)
