DUBAI / TEL AVIV — United Arab Emirates authorities are seeking the strictest penalties including death penalty for 29-year-old Omani co-pilot Hamam al-Hamami, who attempted to deliberately crash flydubai Flight FZ1073 after launching a violent attack on the flight captain inside the cockpit.
The UAE government has officially classified the September 30 incident as a terrorist attack. Israeli investigators are actively investigating together with Emirati authorities in an expanding cross-border probe, Israeli news outlet Ynet reported.
Flight FZ1073 was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv carrying more than 170 passengers when Hamami attacked Indian captain Smit Machhar with a cockpit crash axe, initiating a rapid 14,000-foot dive before off-duty crew and passengers controlled him, forcing an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
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Omani Co-Pilot Confession: ‘Wanted to Crash the Plane’
Hamami was initially detained by Saudi authorities in Tabuk before being extradited to the UAE for formal interrogation.
According to reports cited by The Wall Street Journal, Hamami confessed to investigators that his objective was to bring down the flight, saying that he “had no fear of death.” Multi-agency investigators are currently probing whether Hamami was radicalized during a previous stay in Syria, alongside examining his international travel and communications.
Previous Grounding at Oman Air Raises Vetting Questions
The investigation has exposed critical lapses in airline screening, revealing that Hamami had previously been flagged as an extremist risk:
- Oman Air Sanctions: Before joining flydubai, Hamami was employed by Oman Air. Aviation security officials identified his digital footprint for visiting radical Islamist websites.
- Deradicalisation and Desk Reassignment: Following the security flags, Oman Air grounded Hamami, put him through a formal state deradicalisation programme, and reassigned him strictly to administrative ground duties.
- Re-entering the Cockpit: Despite being grounded in Oman, Hamami sought pilot positions elsewhere, applying to Royal Air Maroc in 2025 before being hired as a first officer by flydubai in February 2026.
Aviation regulators are now questioning how Hamami successfully cleared the UAE’s mandatory background checks and security vetting to regain access to commercial passenger cockpits.
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Radical Online Footprint Under Scrutiny
Intelligence agencies are analyzing an archive of Hamami’s deleted X (formerly Twitter) account containing over 3,000 historical posts.
The digital trail includes hardline religious commentary opposing women working outside the home, extremist ideological rhetoric, and photographs associated with late Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Hamami completed his initial flight training in the UAE and subsequently earned a distance-learning degree in aviation management from Buckinghamshire New University in the United Kingdom. UAE and international aviation authorities are reviewing commercial cockpit screening protocols to address how an individual with a documented history of ideological monitoring was cleared for active flight rosters.
