DUBAI, October 9, 2026 — The Omani co-pilot who tried to seize control of a Flydubai passenger jet last week planned to crash it into Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv in a 9/11-style suicide attack, the United Arab Emirates’ attorney general revealed on Friday, in the first detailed account of a plot that nearly brought down a plane carrying some 174 people.
In a statement carried by the state news agency WAM, Attorney General Dr Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said the investigation found that Hamam al-Hammami, 29, had drawn inspiration from the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States — and that the idea of carrying out a similar operation with an aircraft was, in the suspect’s own confession, connected to his decision to become a pilot in the first place.
Premeditated Plot, Confesses Suspect
Prosecutors described the September 30 attack aboard Flight FZ1073, flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv, as a premeditated terror plot aimed at seizing the aircraft and using it as a suicide weapon against a passenger terminal at Israel’s main international airport, with the aim of causing the greatest possible number of casualties.
The suspect had used two previous flights to Tel Aviv to familiarise himself with the route and the airport, prosecutors said. The suspect, who investigators say confessed to acting alone, attacked the flight’s captain, Indian national Smit Machchhar, with an emergency crash axe in a struggle that sent the jet plunging 16,000 feet in 30 seconds.
The captain, though injured, managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to overpower the co-pilot. A reserve pilot on board took the controls and diverted the aircraft to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia, where al-Hammami was detained before being transferred to the UAE.
Radicalised in Australia, Career in the Skies
The attorney general traced the suspect’s drift toward extremism to 2017, when al-Hammami was studying in Melbourne, Australia. During that period, investigators said, he was exposed to extremist literature and online content glorifying terrorist organisations and suicide attacks.
The timeline of his aviation career, laid out by the attorney general, shows al-Hammami worked for Oman Air between 2020 and 2024, held a brief position with Morocco’s Royal Air Maroc in 2025, and joined Flydubai in January 2026. Trade sources said questions are now being raised across the region’s aviation industry about how the co-pilot passed repeated security vetting at three separate airlines.
Officials in Australia have opened their own inquiry into the suspect’s ties during his years as a student there, as investigators continue to probe whether al-Hammami had any accomplices or support — a question the attorney general said the investigation is still examining despite the suspect’s claim to have acted alone.
Flights Grounded, Region on Edge
The near-crash has halted flights between the UAE and Israel — a cornerstone of the recognition deal the two countries struck in 2020 — with Flydubai suspending its Israel services after the incident. The foiled attack has become a major talking point in Israel’s election season, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the crew and passengers had averted what he called a 9/11-style disaster.
State media reported the investigation, launched on October 1, is continuing, with prosecutors promising its full results once concluded. Security analysts say the case is set to reshape cockpit-security procedures across Middle East carriers for years to come.
[…] cockpit of Flight FZ1073 with a crash axe in an alleged bid to seize control of the aircraft and crash it into Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport. Passengers and crew subdued the attacker after the captain managed to keep the cockpit door […]