A FlyDubai flight carrying 174 passengers—mostly Israeli nationals—was forced into an emergency diversion to Saudi Arabia last week after its copilot attacked the captain with a cockpit emergency axe and attempted to seize control of the aircraft.
UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi formally classified the incident as a terrorist act, stating during the investigation that the copilot had initiated a plan to take over the flight deck. The assault left the Indian commander injured before other passengers intervened and managed to immobilize the attacker.
Cockpit Struggle Forces Emergency Landing in Saudi Arabia
The flight had been bound for Israel when the violence erupted on the flight deck. According to UAE prosecutors, the suspect retrieved the mandatory emergency axe stored inside the cockpit and struck the captain. Israeli officials, citing eyewitness accounts from the flight, reported that the copilot was simultaneously hitting the aircraft’s control panels with extreme force.
The aircraft altered course for a safe landing on Saudi territory, where security forces took initial control of the situation. Following the landing, the suspect was transferred from Saudi custody to Abu Dhabi, which holds legal jurisdiction given that the aircraft is registered in the United Arab Emirates and flies under its flag.
The Copilot’s Background and Security Vetting Gaps
While UAE authorities have not formally released the suspect’s nationality, international media outlets have identified him as 29-year-old Hammam al-Hammami. Born to an Omani father and a Syrian mother, al-Hammami spent several years living in the Emirates.
Security background checks reveal that Omani authorities had previously barred him from flying due to intelligence suggesting he had been influenced by radical Islamist groups during a stay in Syria.
The incident has exposed security questions. Under standard protocols, there is a ban for pilots originating from nations that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel, such as Oman, to operate direct flights into Israel. Furthermore, security sources told Haaretz that Israel received the crew roster ahead of time, with the Ministry of Transport’s security department and the Mossad tasked with vetting non-Israeli flight personnel and issuing alerts in case of anomalies.
In the wake of the attack, Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported that national security agencies are urgently verifying whether other pilots from hostile or unfriendly states operating under foreign airline flags might be utilizing dual citizenship.
Employment History and Radicalized Social Media Posts
Al-Hammami’s professional aviation footprint spans multiple carriers over a brief period. A LinkedIn profile linked to him indicates he flew for Oman Air for seven years before departing in February 2025. He subsequently joined Royal Air Maroc in June 2025, though the Casablanca-based airline later clarified that his candidacy was ultimately rejected following a three-month training period, leading to his exit in January 2026.
The profile made no mention of FlyDubai, where CNN reported he had been employed for just eight months following an unsuccessful application with Emirates. Educational records from the Buckinghamshire New University in the United Kingdom confirm he was enrolled in a distance-learning course in aeronautical management, though the university noted he completed zero flight training programs through their institution.
Approximately nine hours after the emergency landing, two posts featuring extremist imagery were published on the copilot’s LinkedIn profile before it was taken down. CNN reported that the first post featured cockpit footage from a Boeing 737 Max—the same model involved in the attack—filmed alongside Israeli carrier aircraft such as El Al. It also displayed photographs of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda after the death of Osama bin Laden, and Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi—an al-Qaeda affiliate responsible for a 2009 suicide bombing that killed nine individuals, including seven CIA personnel and contractors.
A second post featured an artificial intelligence-generated image depicting Islam’s three holiest sites—Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem—linked by a continuous beam of light, accompanied by a poem addressing the refusal of humiliation, the absence of fear regarding death, and the defense of one’s dignity. Investigators have not yet determined who uploaded the posts or whether they were scheduled in advance.
Political Repercussions and Unresolved Security Questions
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the Indian commander, inviting him to Israel and hailing him as heroic for managing to open the cockpit door despite his injuries. Netanyahu asserted that al-Hammami had undergone radical Islamist indoctrination with the explicit intent of crashing the airliner with all passengers on board, warning that anyone found to have been complicit will pay a heavy price.
Questions remain over how al-Hammami managed to board the flight in defiance of restrictions for pilots from countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel, and whether lingering ambiguities regarding dual citizenship will trigger broader operational changes among foreign carriers operating routes toward Israel.
