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UAE Prosecutor General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said the co-pilot of flydubai Flight FZ1073 attempted a terrorist attack by attacking the pilot with a crash axe. The co-pilot, Omani national Hammam al-Hammami, was subdued by off-duty pilots and passengers before the Boeing 737 MAX landed in Saudi Arabia.
The United Arab Emirates is leading the investigation into the mid-air emergency aboard flydubai Flight FZ1073 after its prosecutor general said the co-pilot attempted a terrorist attack.
Prosecutor General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said investigations found the co-pilot had attempted to carry out a terrorist attack, in a statement carried by the UAE state news agency WAM. The comments were the first by Emirati investigators to describe the incident as an attempted terrorist attack. The co-pilot was identified as Hammam al-Hammami, an Omani national, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter who spoke to Reuters.
Investigation Focuses On Co-pilot Identity
UAE authorities did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation of his identity. Israeli officials have previously said the co-pilot was an Omani national, and Oman has not commented on the incident. The early finding was that the co-pilot attacked the pilot inside the cockpit with a crash axe fitted on board, typically kept for emergencies such as crashes.
The statement eases concerns that the co-pilot managed to carry a knife through airport security and onto the aircraft, although it also sets off a debate about future safeguards against rogue pilots. The prosecutor general's comments were the first by Emirati investigators to describe the incident as an attempted terrorist attack.
The aircraft had dropped about 16,625 feet in just over 30 seconds while flying over Saudi Arabia on its journey from the UAE to Israel, according to flight-tracking data from Flightradar24. The route is popular among Israeli travellers and most passengers on board were Israeli nationals. Israeli authorities said the co-pilot had undergone an Islamist radical indoctrination that led him to stab the chief pilot and plunge the aircraft toward the ground.
Off-duty Pilots Prevent Tragedy
Israeli officials said he had talked on social media about killing Jews and had displayed his jihadist ideology online. The attempted attack came close to killing all 174 passengers and crew, according to witness accounts, and was only prevented because two off-duty pilots were on board. They were able to stabilise the Boeing 737 MAX and land it at Tabuk airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where the co-pilot was detained by Saudi authorities.
The captain and co-pilot left Saudi Arabia for Abu Dhabi on Thursday morning after receiving medical clearance, the Saudi Interior Ministry said. The co-pilot was transferred from Saudi Arabia to Abu Dhabi on Thursday. A source briefed on the investigation told Reuters on Friday that Israeli officials were expected to question the co-pilot in the UAE, though the source did not say which Israeli agency would take part.
An Israeli government official told Reuters that Israeli investigators would take part alongside Emirati authorities in the UAE-led investigation, seeking to determine what happened and examine the suspect's motives and background. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that early evidence showed the pilot had called out kill me, kill me after he was subdued by passengers and tied up on the floor of the aircraft cabin.
Netanyahu also said Israel was looking into whether the co-pilot had acted under anyone's direction, warning that anyone involved would pay a heavy price. He told Fox News that Israel knows the co-pilot underwent Islamist radical indoctrination, in the first public remarks on this aspect of the investigation. The co-pilot had been banned from flying by Oman because of concerns he had adopted radical ideological views, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
This meant al-Hammami had only been flying for flydubai for about eight months. Israeli authorities are concerned that he was assigned to fly an aircraft bound for Tel Aviv when Oman and Israel do not have formal diplomatic relations and the Omani citizen should not have had approval to land. CNN also reported that al-Hammami was removed from a previous job at Oman's national airline last year following concerns about his extremist views.
Co-pilot Employment History Revealed
The co-pilot is said to have been born in the United Arab Emirates to an Omani father and Syrian mother and has spent several years in the Emirates. A LinkedIn profile bearing the name of Hamam al-Hammami listed his experience at Oman Air for seven years before he left in February 2025 and then joined Royal Air Maroc in June of that year. It said he departed Royal Air Maroc in January 2026.
The LinkedIn profile was deleted after CNN noted the pilot's background and before it published its story on his previous postings. Royal Air Maroc told Reuters that he had undergone a three-month training with the airline in 2025 but his application to work there afterwards was rejected. RAM did not elaborate.
CNN reported two video clips on the co-pilot's social media accounts that appeared to show support for extremism, but it also acknowledged that the clips had been posted online after the flight emergency, raising questions about how they were posted and by whom. In one video, a person filming zoomed in on an Israeli plane at an airport. The aircraft was a commercial airliner operated by El Al.
Social Media Posts Raise Extremism Questions
In another video, CNN reported, planes from other Israeli aircraft were shown before the clip ended with a photograph of Ayman al-Zawahiri, who led al Qaeda after the death of Osama Bin Laden. The video also had a photo of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who killed nine people, including CIA officers, in a 2009 suicide bombing at a base in Afghanistan.
Following the release of the prosecutor general's statement, Anwar Gargash, a senior adviser to the UAE president, said on X that the Gulf country had zero tolerance for terrorism and would show no leniency toward extremist rhetoric. Investigations are ongoing to determine the circumstances, motives and any related connections, as well as to examine physical and digital evidence, Al Shamsi said.
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theage:Flydubai co-pilot allegedly wielded axe in attempted terrorist attackThis story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
Hammam Al-Hammami UAE Terrorist Attack Investigation Crash Axe Cockpit Attack Israel Investigation Flydubai FZ1073 Oman Extremism Ban Terrorist Attack Crash Axe UAE Investigation
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