The attempted hijacking of a Flydubai passenger aircraft appears to have been far more calculated and potentially catastrophic than initially believed.
Hamam al-Hammami, the 29-year-old Omani first officer accused of attacking the captain of Flydubai Flight 1073, told investigators in the United Arab Emirates that he intended to turn the flight into a suicide attack targeting Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.
According to reports in Israeli media, al-Hammami planned to kill Captain Smit Machchhar while the aircraft was approaching Israel, then continue flying the Boeing 737 as though nothing had happened. His apparent objective was to obtain the remaining landing clearances without alerting air traffic controllers or security personnel before deliberately crashing the aircraft into a building or another aircraft at Ben Gurion Airport.
According to the reported investigation, the plan was designed around surprise. By waiting until the aircraft was close to its destination, al-Hammami believed people would have little time to recognise what was happening or intervene.
If an attack on Ben Gurion Airport proved impossible, investigators were told that he had considered alternative targets, including a skyscraper in Tel Aviv or a US military installation in Jordan.
The attack began over Jordan
According to Ynet, al-Hammami told investigators that he began executing his plan while the aircraft was over Jordan and approaching Israel.
He attacked Captain Machchhar with a crash axe after asking for permission to pray.
Machchhar later described the terrifying moment during a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Initially, he believed the aircraft itself had suffered some kind of impact.
Then the blows continued.
It was only when he realised that the source of the attack was the person sitting beside him in the cockpit that he understood what was happening.
Despite suffering serious injuries, the captain managed to fight back. He sent distress signals and succeeded in opening the cockpit door, allowing members of the crew and passengers to overpower the co-pilot.
Two off-duty pilots who were travelling on the aircraft subsequently helped take control of the plane. The flight was eventually diverted and landed safely in Saudi Arabia.
That intervention may have prevented what could otherwise have become one of the most devastating aviation attacks in the region in years.
The attack was planned before he joined Flydubai
The investigation has also raised questions about how long al-Hammami had been planning the attack.
According to Channel 13, investigators were told that the plan predated his employment with flydubai.
Al-Hammami said he specifically looked for an airline operating flights to Tel Aviv and chose flydubai because of its regular service between the UAE and Israel.
That account, if confirmed, would mean the plot was not an impulsive act carried out after joining the airline, but something he had purportedly considered before obtaining his position as a commercial pilot.
Israeli media have also reported that he had travelled to Ben Gurion Airport several times after joining flydubai. During a June visit, he spent much of his time observing the airport and gathering information relevant to his planned attack.
He intended to carry out the operation earlier, possibly in July, but postponed it because of his relationship with a member of the flight crew.
Attempt to bring down the aircraft
Separate reporting by Italy’s Corriere della Sera has suggested that the attack went beyond an attempt to seize control of the cockpit.
According to the report, after assaulting Captain Machchhar, al-Hammami switched off the aircraft’s engines and pushed the controls in a manner that sent the aircraft into a rapid descent.
The plane lost around 16,000 feet in less than a minute and approached extremely high speed before control was recovered.
If accurate, those actions indicate that the co-pilot was attempting to deliberately crash the aircraft rather than merely divert it or take passengers hostage.
Questions over earlier security warnings
The case has now raised serious questions about aviation security procedures in the region.
One of the most significant claims emerging from the investigation is that Omani authorities had previously prevented al-Hammami from flying because of concerns surrounding his alleged extremist views.
That raises an obvious question: how did he subsequently obtain employment as a commercial pilot and gain access to the cockpit of a passenger aircraft?
Al-Hammami is an Omani citizen, with an Omani father and Syrian mother. Reports say he spent part of his life in Syria during the country’s civil war and had posted material online expressing support for al-Qaeda.
Israeli officials have also been examining how he was cleared to operate a flight carrying passengers to Tel Aviv, particularly given that Oman does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
Did information fall through the cracks?
The investigation is likely to focus heavily on whether warnings about al-Hammami existed but failed to reach the organisations responsible for employing and clearing him.
Regional officials told the Associated Press that the UAE had shared information concerning the passengers and crew, including their nationalities. Israeli authorities, however, found no prior red flags concerning anyone on the flight.
The Shin Bet has said that the Transportation Ministry is responsible for vetting passenger information from foreign flights. Transportation Minister Miri Regev, meanwhile, said on X that responsibility for aviation security rests with the security agencies and that her ministry had not received a passenger list or warning concerning the flight.
Dvir Rubenstien, head of aviation security at Israel’s Transportation Ministry, acknowledged another limitation: authorities rely substantially on security checks conducted elsewhere and do not have the capacity or tools to independently investigate every passenger and crew member arriving on every international flight.
That distinction could prove crucial.
The case is no longer simply about how a pilot managed to attack his captain inside a cockpit. It raises a much larger question about whether intelligence concerning a potentially radicalised aviation professional was identified, shared and acted upon at the right stages.
Had Captain Machchhar been unable to resist, or had the crew and passengers failed to regain access to the cockpit, Flight 1073 could potentially have ended as a deliberate mass-casualty attack over Israel.
The investigation will now have to establish exactly what was known about al-Hammami, when it was known, which authorities had access to that information, and, most importantly, why it did not stop him from reaching the cockpit of a commercial passenger aircraft in the first place.
