Flydubai co-pilot admits attempting to crash plane into Israel after stabbing captain – report

The 29-year-old Omani flydubai co-pilot who allegedly stabbed the plane’s Indian captain and attempted to crash the aircraft on Wednesday is reportedly cooperating with investigators in the United Arab Emirates following the terrorist incident.

Hammam al-Hamami admitted during questioning that he tried to crash the plane, which was carrying almost 180 passengers, into Israeli territory, ABC News reported on Saturday. Oman Air reported that the airline company terminated al-Hamami's employment in 2024 over concerns that he had become radicalized and was in possession of “extremist materials.”

The UAE attorney general said on Saturday that al-Hamami used an emergency ax to attack the flight captain and then attempted to take control of the aircraft’s flight systems.

“The investigation is continuing with the aim of uncovering all the circumstances and motives behind the incident on the flight,” he said.

Hours after the stabbing attack, al-Hamami’s LinkedIn account reportedly contained footage of an Islamist al-Qaeda leader, as well as El Al planes filmed shortly after the Oct. 7 massacre.

It remains officially unclear whether Oman Air informed Flydubai of concerns about al-Hamami’s alleged radicalization. His LinkedIn account shows that he worked for Oman Air for seven years before leaving the airline in February 2025. He then joined Morocco’s Royal Air Maroc a few months later before beginning work for flydubai in January 2026.

Al-Hamami reportedly spent significant time outside Oman, including in Syria, where his mother was born. The Saudi network Al Arabiya reported on Friday that Omani authorities were aware of the suspect's extremist views and previous residence in Syria. An anonymous source said al-Hamami may have been radicalized by an Islamist extremist group operating there.

Al-Hamami also studied aviation management at Buckinghamshire New University in the United Kingdom and reportedly graduated in 2023.

CNN reported that a now-deleted 𝕏 account in al-Hamami’s name contained posts expressing religious extremist views. In several posts from 2022, he discussed his difficulty finding a potential wife who would agree to wear a niqab, a strict Muslim face covering that leaves only a narrow opening for the eyes.

“They all refused. Then my mother told them, ‘My son is a pilot,’ and suddenly they all agreed,” al-Hamami wrote in a February 2022 post.

“How many respectable, religious young women have been ruined in mixed-gender workplaces and manipulated?” he wrote in another 2022 post.

Israeli investigators have sought to participate in the investigation, but it remains unclear what role Israel will have in the ongoing probe into the attempted attack.

It is also unclear whether al-Hamami acted alone or was acting on behalf of a terrorist organization or government.

U.S. President Donald Trump has speculated that Iran may have been linked to the Omani pilot.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also did not rule out the possibility in a recent interview, saying that Israel would determine the facts in the near future.

However, an anonymous informed source told The Associated Press that there is currently no evidence of Iranian involvement in the incident.