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The co-pilot of a FlyDubai aircraft who allegedly attacked the captain and tried to crash a flight headed for Israel on Wednesday was an Omani national previously barred from flying by Oman Air after being deemed a security risk, according to senior intelligence and law enforcement officials.
Several sources familiar with the investigation identified the suspected attacker as 29-year-old Hamam Al Hammami.
According to officials who spoke to ABC News, Al Hammami was working as a co-pilot trainee for Oman Air in 2024 when he was found with extremist materials. The sources said he was permitted to remain with the airline in an administrative position.
United Arab Emirates Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said Saturday that the co-pilot had attempted to carry out a terrorist act. He allegedly began putting the plan into action during the flight by attacking the captain with a crash axe and trying to take control of the aircraft, according to the state-run WAM news agency.
The statement marked the first confirmation from UAE authorities that the co-pilot had assaulted the captain and specified that a crash axe was used. Earlier statements had referred to the episode as a security incident, saying investigators were working to establish whether it involved terrorism or advance planning.
Al Shamsi emphasized that the investigation remains underway as authorities examine the circumstances, motive and any potential connections linked to the incident. Technical checks and reviews of physical and digital evidence are also in progress, he said, with final conclusions to be released after the required procedures are complete.
Investigators are continuing to examine how the suspected attacker was later cleared to fly for FlyDubai and how he came to occupy the first officer’s seat on a flight bound for Israel, the sources said.
Al Hammami was transferred Thursday from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates. Sources briefed on the investigation said he is cooperating with authorities and has indicated that he intended to crash the aircraft in Israel.
“We recognise that there are many questions at this stage; however, the circumstances surrounding the incident are still under investigation,” FlyDubai said in a statement obtained by ABC News on Saturday. “We are therefore not in a position to comment further beyond our published statements. We remain fully committed to supporting the ongoing investigation and are in close coordination with the relevant government authorities and regulators.”
Oman Air and the Omani Embassy did not immediately respond to ABC News requests for comment.
In an earlier statement issued Friday on behalf of its chief executive,
Israeli passenger Yaniv Hayoun, a plumber, said he pulled back on the controls to stabilize the aircraft until a third pilot traveling in the cabin took command. The plane ultimately made a safe landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Shota Musaev, one of the passengers who rushed toward the front of the aircraft, told ABC News in an interview this week that the attacker was bloodied and restrained on the floor outside the cockpit. Musaev said the man told him he was from Oman and, at one point, asked him to kill him.
“He said, ‘Kill me please, kill me please,’” Musaev said.
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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, whom he did not identify by 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 renewed his praise for Hayoun and the other passengers, crediting them with averting a “tragedy like 9/11.”
A sparse online biography believed to belong to the suspect said he had studied aviation management at a university in Britain 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.
Hammami appears to have operated an account on X (formerly Twitter). A review of over 3,000 archived posts from the now-deleted account in 2021 and 2022 pointed to intense religious conservatism and misogyny, including approving references to violence against women.
The archived posts -- a partial snapshot of online activity over two years -- do not contain any obvious calls for violence against Israel or the West.
The author of the posts claims to have spent a total of five years studying in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
Several details included in the account's posts are consistent with Hammami, including his age, his Omani nationality and his career as a pilot.
Royal Air Maroc -- Morocco's national carrier --
A representative for the school in Australia declined to comment and referred an inquiry from ABC News to the Australian federal police.
- ABC News' Dragana Jovanovic contributed to this report.
This story has been updated.
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