Flydubai axe plot shows terror screening still fails

The jet fell 16,000 feet in 30 seconds.

On September 30, 2026, Flydubai Flight FZ1073 was carrying about 170 people, most of them Israelis, from Dubai toward Tel Aviv when the co-pilot turned on the captain inside the locked cockpit. He used the aircraft’s emergency crash axe. The plane plunged hard. An off-duty flydubai pilot riding in the cabin saw the cockpit door opening and closing repeatedly in a way that did not look normal. He entered with the access code and found the attack already under way. Captain Smit Machchhar, though seriously hurt, managed to unlock the door. Crew members and passengers helped overpower the co-pilot. The aircraft diverted and landed safely at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia. No passenger was harmed.

UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi later described what prosecutors say the co-pilot intended. The plan was “to crash the plane into the passenger terminal at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport and kill as many people as possible.” Al Shamsi called it “a premeditated plot with a terrorist objective, aimed at taking control of the aircraft and using it to carry out a suicide attack targeting the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion Airport,” carried out “with the aim of causing the greatest possible loss of life.”

The suspect is a 29-year-old Omani national identified in reporting as Hamam al-Hammami. According to his confessions as relayed by prosecutors, the September 11, 2001 attacks shaped the rest of his path. “The idea of carrying out a similar operation using an aircraft became firmly established in his mind, which, according to his confessions, was connected to his decision to pursue a career in aviation.” He told investigators the September 30 flight was not his first look at the target. He had already flown the Tel Aviv route twice to familiarize himself with the flight path and the airport.

Prosecutors traced the turn toward extremism to 2017, while he was studying in Melbourne, Australia. They say his views formed “through reading extremist literature and following online content glorifying terrorist organizations and suicide attacks.” He “prepared himself psychologically and physically to carry out his plot by increasing his exposure to material inciting terrorism and training in boxing under a private coach.” He claimed he acted alone. Prosecutors said they are still checking that claim and reviewing recordings, technical reports, and any possible links to others. Australia’s Joint Counter Terrorism Team has opened its own examination of his time in the country.

His employment record, as prosecutors laid it out, shows a steady climb into the cockpit. He worked for Oman Air from 2020 to 2024, had a stint connected to Royal Air Maroc in 2025, and joined flydubai in January 2026. Flydubai is owned by the Dubai government. Earlier reporting by ABC News and the Wall Street Journal said Oman Air had removed him from flight duties in 2024 over concerns about extremist tendencies. The prosecutors’ announcement noted only that he had worked there and did not address those accounts.

What the hiring process did show is the core failure that should concern every government that still treats paper compliance as safety. Investigators reviewed flydubai’s procedures and found that al-Hammami held a valid pilot’s license, produced a certificate of good conduct, and passed the required professional and security checks. “However, none of the procedures revealed any indications of his extremist views or his intention to carry out a terrorist plot,” Al Shamsi said. The man who prosecutors say spent years preparing a mass-casualty crash had cleared the gate.

About nine hours after the incident, while he was already in custody, a video featuring images of former al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri appeared on LinkedIn and Instagram accounts bearing his name. It remains unclear who posted it or whether it had been scheduled earlier. Both accounts were later deleted. Flydubai suspended its Israel routes after the attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the co-pilot must have gotten around restrictions meant to keep individuals from nations that do not recognize Israel from operating flights into the country. He also said the suspect had undergone extremist radical indoctrination. After the foiled attack he ordered a thorough review of all security aspects of foreign civil aviation to Israel. The passengers, overwhelmingly Israeli, and the pilots who kept the aircraft in the air received his public thanks.