The co-pilot accused of attacking his captain aboard a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv last week intended to crash the plane into Ben Gurion Airport or a high-rise in the city, according to U.S. and Israeli media reports summarized Monday by the BBC.
Thee Arizona Times first reported the mid-air attack on Sept. 30, when the flight was diverted to Saudi Arabia.
What investigators reportedly found
The United Arab Emirates’ attorney general has called the incident an attempted “terrorist act” on flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv. The co-pilot, an Omani national named in multiple reports as Hamam al-Hammami, attacked and wounded Capt. Smit Machchhar with the emergency crash axe kept in the cockpit before passengers overpowered him. Another crew traveling on the plane landed it in Saudi Arabia.
Israeli outlets, citing sources familiar with the investigation, reported that the co-pilot told questioners he planned to keep flying normally into Israeli airspace, obtain landing clearance, and then crash the Boeing 737 MAX, with more than 180 passengers aboard, into the airport or a tower in central Tel Aviv. The sources described him as a “lone wolf” who most likely acted alone rather than for a group or government. He also reportedly said he had considered a similar attack on an earlier flight but changed his mind because he knew someone aboard.
There was no immediate comment from Emirati or Israeli authorities on those reports, the BBC said. The UAE attorney general has said results of its investigation will be announced when it concludes.
Security questions
Regional officials said Oman Air had barred the co-pilot from flying and moved him to an administrative job over concerns about his extremist views, but flydubai later hired him after standard checks that did not look for signs of radicalization. Israeli rules also bar pilots from countries without diplomatic ties to Israel, including Oman, from operating flights there.
Israeli agencies have traded blame over vetting of crew lists, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a review of security for foreign airlines flying to Israel, saying the crew and passengers prevented “a 9/11 disaster.” Australian authorities are also looking into the co-pilot’s links to Australia, where he reportedly studied from 2015 to 2017.
Photo: Bahnfrend via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). File photo of a flydubai Boeing 737-8 MAX at Kraków airport, 2024; not the aircraft involved.