The pilot accused of stabbing a colleague during an alleged hijacking attempt has been identified as a suspected religious extremist.
He is understood to be Hamam Al Hammami, a 29-year-old Omani national.
ABC News reported that extremist material was allegedly found in Al Hammami’s possession in 2024, when he was working as a trainee co-pilot with Oman Air. Sources said he was subsequently moved into an administrative position.
A source at Buckinghamshire New University reportedly said Al Hammami completed a three-year distance-learning programme and received a degree in aviation management in 2023. The source added that he did not undergo pilot training at the university.
He is also believed to have studied engineering at a university in Australia.
The prosecutor general has said Al Hammami allegedly used an axe during the attempt to seize control of the aircraft.
Investigators are examining how he was cleared to fly for Flydubai and how he came to be serving as first officer on a flight bound for Israel.
Sources close to the investigation said Al Hammami, who was transferred from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, is cooperating with authorities.
Our News Outlet has contacted the university for comment.
Hamam Al Hammami, a 29-year-old Omani national, has been named as the suspected attacker
Passengers and crew members reportedly overpowered the co-pilot after he allegedly attacked Captain Smit Machchhar and tried to take control of a Flydubai jet travelling at altitude from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning.
The aircraft plunged 14,000 feet in only 29 seconds as those on board fought to regain control. Captain Machchhar was left seriously injured and covered in blood on the cabin floor, while a British pilot who was off duty is believed to have helped restrain the attacker.
Israeli officials said a potentially catastrophic incident was narrowly averted after passengers on Flight FZ1073 subdued the pilot accused of attempting to hijack the aircraft.
Footage recorded during the emergency captured passengers screaming as the plane entered a terrifying and unstable descent.
The flight was carrying 182 people from Dubai to Tel Aviv when it was diverted to Tabuk in north-western Saudi Arabia for an emergency landing.
The crew broadcast a general emergency alert using squawk code 7700, the four-digit signal used to communicate an in-flight emergency, as the aircraft turned back near the Saudi-Israeli border.
While over Saudi Arabia, the flight briefly transmitted code 7500, which indicates unlawful interference or a suspected hijacking. Officials feared the situation could develop into a mass-casualty attack, with some describing the passengers’ actions as preventing an “Israeli 9/11” after they restrained the alleged attacker.
Captain Smit Machchhar was praised for helping save the lives of the 174 passengers on board
Passengers leave the rear of the aircraft after it landed in Saudi Arabia, with images appearing to show part of the rudder missing
A person who heard the crew’s mayday transmission to air traffic control said the aircraft was initially turned away by Saudi Arabia and Jordan before eventually being cleared to land in the north-western Saudi city of Tabuk.
The person, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the pilot’s voice was trembling as he called ‘mayday’ and said a hijacking was taking place and ambulances would be needed.
But Saudi Arabia initially denied clearance to land and directed him to Jordan. The plane was told to wait for clearance from the Jordanian military and then turned away.
The pilot then returned to Saudi Arabia and said he had to land in Tabuk. The air traffic control operators gave no reason for the earlier refusals.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the alleged attacker was arrested in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday afternoon and was undergoing interrogation there.
Passengers and crew, including the captain Mr Machchhar, have been hailed for their bravery in preventing what is believed to be an attempted suicide mission. One of whom is said to have been an off-duty British pilot.
Mr Machchhar was praised for saving the lives of those 174 passengers on board, which included four Americans. While cruising mid-air, the hero was able to fight off his co-pilot in the cockpit and his attempts to sabotage the plane’s systems.
Distressing footage showed Mr Machchhar lying on the ground covered in blood as passengers tended to his injuries, while another pilot is seen seemingly lying nearby unconscious. Passengers can be heard telling one of the men: ‘You saved the plane.’
Delhi’s embassy in Saudi Arabia has since confirmed Mr Machchhar is being treated in a hospital in Tabuk.
The incident was described as ‘an attempted jihadist terror attack’ by Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz, which was ‘thwarted only thanks to the heroism of several Israeli passengers’.
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This includes one, named by local media as Yaniv Hayun, who was called a ‘hero’ by Mr Netanyahu during a meeting as he arrived back in Tel Aviv.
Mr Hayun, who was wearing a blood-soaked T-shirt, embraced the Israeli PM before describing how he broke down the cockpit door and wrestled the alleged terrorist before taking over control of the plane – the skills of which he credits to his watching of TV show Air Disasters, which investigates notable aviation crises.
Speaking to Our News Outlet, Mr Hayoun recounted the terrifying moment he stepped in, describing how he put the pilot in a headlock and prevented him from interfering with the controls as the jet plunged towards the ground.
‘About an hour before landing, a woman started shouting,’ he said, ‘At the front of the aircraft, a woman started screaming something about stabbing: “He’s stabbing him, he’s stabbing him.”‘
Yaniv Hayoun is seen on the Flydubai aircraft with blood on his shirt after helping to overpower the knifeman
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets Yaniv, who broke into the cockpit, at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv
Hayoun said he ran towards the cockpit, which is where the woman’s screams were coming from, but as he approached, the plane nosedived.
Photos from the incident show blood-covered passengers in the aftermath of the attack, after they successfully managed to overpower the knifeman and prevent him from continuing his assault.
‘It lasted several seconds. I don’t know exactly how many seconds it was, but they say we lost 14,000 or 15,000 feet in less than a minute — the aircraft lost that altitude. It was enormous.’
Speaking later, one passenger said the turbulence felt like ‘riding a rollercoaster’.
Another passenger, Zvika Manes, said people were ‘flying out of their seats’ before the plane stabilised.
When he managed to recover from the shock, Mr Hayoun says he got to the door of the cockpit, where someone was holding the handle.
‘I opened the door – I pushed the door while he was holding the handle. I pushed it open and went inside. On the floor, right beside the door, was the pilot. He was lying there. He was very seriously injured.’
‘There was no pilot in the pilot’s seat. One pilot was lying beside the door, seriously injured but conscious. His eyes were open. Between the two seats are the aircraft’s controls.’
Mr Hayoun recounted how the knifeman had his knees on the plane’s controls, ‘as though trying to interfere with the instruments’.
‘He was leaning forward toward the aircraft’s controls. So I grabbed him by the throat,’ he said, ‘I pushed him out toward the exit and started shouting for people to come and help because he was resisting.’
The hero explained that at least three other Israelis rushed to his aid.
‘We subdued him with blows. We had to stun him, so he took some blows. We tied him up.
‘Once he was no longer a threat, we simply stood over him and made sure he couldn’t free himself. He may even have lost consciousness for a few minutes – I don’t know.’
After the pilot had been subdued, Mr Hayoun quickly returned to the plane’s controls, in a desperate attempt to save the aircraft from plummeting to the ground.
‘I leaned over the seat, reached forward with my hands and pulled the controls toward me because the aircraft was pointing downward. I pulled the controls back toward me. It was only for a few seconds.’
Speaking to the Mail after safely returning to Israel, the grandfather explained how he miraculously knew what to do in the terrifying moments.
‘There’s a programme called Air Crash Investigation…The images are frightening and they make my wife afraid of flying, so I watch it secretly when she isn’t watching with me.
‘I saw on it that when an aircraft is going downward, you have to bring the controls back — pull them backward — to bring the nose level. It really was only for a few seconds. It wasn’t as though I flew the plane.’
He later recounted how his daughter used to ask him how the plane documentary would ‘ever be useful’.
‘Well, this is where it became useful to me,’ he said, ‘What I had seen became useful to me in the only attempt I’ve ever had in my life to survive. It was one shot – one opportunity.’
Despite his insistence he only helped for a’ few seconds’, Mr Hayoun’s heroic actions allowed time for one of the off-duty pilots on the plane to step in and take control.
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