UAE investigators say a Flydubai co-pilot planned a 9/11-style suicide crash into Ben Gurion Airport’s terminal, a plot passengers and crew stopped mid-flight over Saudi Arabia.
On September 30, the Omani co-pilot of Flydubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv attacked the Indian captain with an emergency crash axe inside the cockpit as the Boeing 737 flew over Saudi Arabia. The 29-year-old, Hamam al-Hammami, aimed to seize the jet and slam it into the passenger terminal at Israel’s main international airport, Ben Gurion, to kill as many people as possible.
Breitbart News reported that UAE Attorney-General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi announced the findings Friday after investigators secured a detailed confession. More than 170 passengers, most of them Israelis, were aboard when the struggle began and the plane plunged.
Captain Smit Machchhar suffered severe, potentially fatal head injuries consistent with axe blows. He still fought back and tried to summon help. A second Flydubai captain traveling for the return leg entered the cockpit with the access code. Cabin crew and passengers, including Israeli Yaniv Hayun, restrained Hammami, pulled him out, and helped wrestle the controls level before an emergency diversion to Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia.
Al Shamsi said investigators uncovered a premeditated terrorist plot. Hammami admitted he chose the airline for one reason.
UAE officials carried his words through the state-run WAM news agency:
"I looked into which airline flies to Tel Aviv. That’s why I chose flydubai."
He added that the scheme started long before he got the job:
"I planned it even before I was accepted."
The attorney-general stated the co-pilot intended to “seize control of the aircraft” and use it for a “suicide attack targeting the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion Airport” with the goal of causing “the greatest possible loss of life.” Hammami drew direct inspiration from the September 11, 2001 attacks and followed takfiri ideology. He told investigators the plot “was linked to his decision to pursue a career in aviation.”
UAE findings traced the start of Hammami’s radicalization to 2017 while he studied in Melbourne, Australia. He immersed himself in extremist literature and online material. He regularly attended a mosque affiliated with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and became acquainted with a religious center called My Centre, which he said was managed by a Lebanese preacher known as Abu Hamza, or Samir Mohtadi. Investigators have not established that Mohtadi or the center took part in the hijacking plot or directly radicalized him.
Hammami trained at L3 Airline Academy in Britain from 2018 to 2019. He began work at Oman Air in 2020. He completed a three-year distance-learning aviation degree at Buckinghamshire New University in 2023. In 2025 he spent three months in pre-employment training with Royal Air Maroc; that carrier later said it did not hire him. He joined Flydubai in January 2026.
He flew two earlier Tel Aviv routes specifically to scout the path and the airport. Israeli media reported he considered striking in July but backed off after forming a friendly tie with a crew member. The September 30 flight was his third try. Hours after the failed attempt, posts including images of former al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri appeared on a LinkedIn account matching Hammami’s identity. It remains unclear who published them or whether they were scheduled in advance. An online profile bearing his name had already displayed al-Qaeda-linked imagery and posts expressing extremist and misogynistic views.
Flydubai’s professional and security checks found nothing. Al Shamsi said Hammami met every requirement, pilot’s license, certificate of good conduct, and the full screening process. None of those checks revealed “any indications of his extremist views or his intention to carry out a terrorist plot.” Omani authorities had previously scrutinized him over radical Islamist ideology, and CNN earlier reported Oman Air removed him from flight training over radical views and shifted him to an administrative post. Those red flags did not stop him from reaching the flight deck of an Israel-bound jet.
The UAE Public Prosecution continues to review cockpit recordings, technical reports, witness statements, and other evidence. Hammami confessed in the presence of a lawyer and claimed he acted alone. The investigation remains open on possible accomplices. Forensic exams confirmed Machchhar’s head wounds matched axe blows and lined up with crew and passenger testimony.
The New York Post reported the co-pilot had worked for Flydubai less than a year. After the axe attack he allegedly issued a 7500 hijacking squawk and the aircraft dropped 18,000 feet before the emergency landing in Tabuk. Oman has no diplomatic relations with Israel. Under the Israel-UAE aviation understandings, only pilots from countries with ties are supposed to operate those routes. A Transportation Ministry source called the episode “a clear breach of the agreement” and said Israel’s Security Agency must examine it. Some Israeli officials urged a temporary halt to Flydubai flights into Tel Aviv.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already compared the averted disaster to a potential September 11-style attack. The plane carried a heavy load of Israeli civilians who would have been the primary victims if the co-pilot had reached the terminal.
Security theater that rubber-stamps radicalized applicants while Israelis sit in the cabin is not security. It is an invitation. The next crew may not win the fight in time.
