Flydubai co-pilot allegedly wielded axe in attempted terrorist attack

London: The co-pilot of an aircraft that almost crashed on its flight to Israel is being accused of a “terrorist attack” that began when he wielded an axe against the lead pilot in a horrifying mid-air clash.

The lead prosecutor in the investigation issued the early findings as the media identified the co-pilot as ‌Hammam al-Hammami, an Omani national said to have spread extremist views online.

The United Arab Emirates is leading the investigation into the ordeal because flydubai Flight FZ1073 began in Dubai, before the crisis on board forced passengers to seize the co-pilot and avert a disaster.

“Investigations into the incident involving flydubai flight FZ1073 found that the co-pilot had attempted ⁠to carry out a terrorist attack,” Prosecutor General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said in a statement carried by the UAE’s state news agency.

The early finding was that the co-pilot attacked the pilot inside the ​cockpit with a crash axe that was fitted on board. A crash axe is typically kept in the cockpit for use during 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 findings came after 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.

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 and were able to stabilise the Boeing 737 MAX and land in a regional airport in Saudi Arabia.

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.

Meanwhile, 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.

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 profile on social media site LinkedIn, and 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.

But 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, in response to a question about his potential employment there in the past, 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.

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.

The prosecutor general’s comments were the first by Emirati investigators to describe the incident as an attempted terrorist attack. 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.

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. The source did not say which Israeli agency or authority would take part.

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.

“We know that he underwent Islamist radical indoctrination,” Netanyahu told Fox News, in the first public remarks on this aspect of the investigation.

Israeli government officials told the media that the co-pilot had talked on social media about killing Jews and had displayed his “jihadist ideology” online.

The assertions are based on Israeli investigations into the co-pilot as well as witness statements about his actions on the aircraft, although accounts vary about what he said.

With Reuters

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