Flydubai copilot planned to crash plane into Israeli airport in 9/11-style attack, UAE prosecutors say

A Flydubai copilot attacked the captain of a passenger jet en route from the UAE to Israel last month, intending to crash the plane into an Israeli airport terminal in an attack modeled on the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, UAE prosecutors said.

Hamad Saif Al Shamsi, the UAE attorney general, announced the findings Friday (local time) through the state-run WAM news agency, according to Al Jazeera and UAE daily The National.

Al Shamsi said the copilot attacked the captain with an emergency ax from the cockpit, and that his plan was "to crash the plane into the passenger terminal at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport and kill as many people as possible."

The incident occurred Sept. 30. The copilot attacked the captain aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073, which had departed Dubai for Tel Aviv. The captain sustained a head injury, and the aircraft dropped more than 5 kilometers in about two minutes.

According to prosecutors, another pilot from the same airline who was seated in the passenger cabin — deadheading for a return flight — entered the cockpit, and crew members and passengers helped subdue the copilot. The plane made an emergency landing at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia. About 170 people were on board.

The copilot is a 29-year-old Omani national. Prosecutors said he began radicalizing around 2017, when he was studying in Melbourne, Australia, and was exposed at that time to writings and videos glorifying terrorist organizations and suicide attacks.

The copilot confessed that he had been inspired by the Sept. 11 attacks and decided to become a pilot in order to carry out a similar attack. Before the attempt, he flew the Tel Aviv route twice to familiarize himself with the flight path and airport. He also said he sought out additional extremist material and trained in boxing with a personal coach to prepare himself physically and mentally. He stated that he acted alone, though prosecutors said they are continuing to verify that claim.

Prosecutors said the copilot held a valid pilot's license and a clean criminal record, and that no signs of extremist tendencies had emerged during the hiring process.

However, ABC News and the Wall Street Journal had earlier reported that he was removed from flight duties at Oman Air in 2024 over concerns about extremist tendencies. The prosecutors' announcement acknowledged only that he had worked at Oman Air and did not address those reports. Flydubai is owned by the Dubai government.

UAE authorities have not officially released the copilot's name. Reuters and the Associated Press, citing sources, identified him as Hamam Al Hammami. Australian authorities have also launched an investigation: the country's Joint Counter Terrorism Team, a partnership between the Australian Federal Police and intelligence agencies, is examining his time in Australia. Australia's ABC reported he studied in the country from 2015 to 2017.

According to CNN, about nine hours after the incident, a video featuring images of former al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and others was posted to LinkedIn and Instagram accounts bearing the copilot's name — by which point he was already in custody. It remains unclear who uploaded the video or whether it had been scheduled in advance. Both accounts have since been deleted. Flydubai suspended its Israel routes following the incident.

The Sept. 11 attacks were carried out by the Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda, which hijacked four passenger jets on Sept. 11, 2001, and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon and other targets, killing approximately 3,000 people.