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United Arab Emirates authorities have released the most detailed account yet of an attempted hijacking aboard a Flydubai flight last month, with Attorney-General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi stating that the suspect planned to crash the plane into Tel Aviv airport in an attack inspired by the September 11 2001 assaults in the United States. The September 30 incident aboard flight FZ1073 from Dubai involved 29-year-old Omani co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami attacking the captain with a crash axe before passengers and a reserve pilot intervened to subdue him. The aircraft was diverted safely to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia where the co-pilot was detained and later handed over to UAE officials for prosecution.
According to a statement by al-Shamsi carried by the UAE state news agency WAM, interrogations showed that signs of the suspect’s drift towards extremism and terrorism first appeared in 2017 while he was studying mechanical engineering at RMIT University in Melbourne. The co-pilot was influenced by takfiri ideology through extremist literature and online content glorifying terrorist groups and suicide operations, which later evolved into ideas advocating violence that drew directly from the 9/11 attacks. Al-Shamsi added that the suspect had confessed to preparing for the plot both psychologically by consuming more terrorism material and physically through boxing lessons with a private trainer while claiming he acted alone though inquiries continue.
The UAE Attorney-General’s update indicated that al-Hammami had used two earlier flights to Tel Aviv to reconnoitre the route and airport layout as part of his premeditated plan to target the passenger terminal for maximum casualties. More than 170 people including a large number of Israeli passengers were aboard the aircraft when the co-pilot allegedly seized a cockpit axe and assaulted the captain according to accounts from Israeli officials and multiple international reports. A combination of crew intervention and passenger assistance allowed the captain to retain control and divert the jet preventing what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a potential mass-casualty disaster.
Al-Shamsi stated that the suspect had satisfied all professional and security vetting when he joined Flydubai in January 2026 after working for Oman Air between 2020 and 2024 and completing brief training with Royal Air Maroc in 2025. The investigation found no evidence of extremist views during the airline’s recruitment processes or in prior employment checks conducted by aviation authorities in those countries. UAE officials stressed that neither Flydubai nor previous employers had detected any indicators of radicalisation prior to the incident.
Australian counterterrorism authorities confirmed they are investigating al-Hammami’s activities during his time in the country where he held a student visa from 2014 and studied at RMIT University in Melbourne between 2015 and 2017. The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team is examining possible connections to radical networks including visits to a mosque affiliated with the university and contacts at a centre known as My Centre reportedly managed by a Lebanese individual called Abu Hamza with alleged Muslim Brotherhood links according to details in the UAE statement. Local media including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Sydney Morning Herald have reported on the suspect’s deleted social media posts that referred to his years in Australia Britain and New Zealand as the golden years of his religious commitment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News shortly after the incident that the co-pilot had undergone Islamist radical indoctrination and displayed clear suicidal intentions though he stopped short of specifying where the process began. The UAE probe has not identified any accomplices or external direction for the attack focusing instead on the suspect’s independent ideological development over several years. Officials from Australia and the UAE continue to share information as parallel investigations assess aviation security protocols and potential gaps in monitoring individuals with international study and employment histories.
