Australia’s Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team is investigating a flydubai co-pilot’s links to the country after he allegedly attacked the pilot during a flight bound for Tel Aviv. The team includes the Australian Federal Police, Victoria Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, an AFP spokesperson said.
The ABC identified the co-pilot as Hamam al-Hammami and reported he was accused of stabbing pilot Smit Machcharr with a cockpit crash axe and trying to seize control of the plane. The United Arab Emirates called the incident a “terrorist attack.” The flight diverted to Tabuk in north-western Saudi Arabia for an emergency landing.
Crew and passengers intervened
The ABC reported that the plane plunged nearly 14,000 feet, or 4,267 metres, in less than 30 seconds and carried 174 people. The Guardian gave a different passenger count, 182, and said the plane plunged 16,625 feet, or 5,067 metres, in just over 30 seconds. Passengers and crew stepped in to stop the co-pilot from taking control, the Guardian reported.
According to the Guardian, the UAE’s prosecutor general said the co-pilot used a crash axe. The co-pilot and captain went to the UAE, which is leading a separate investigation. Officials said several countries, including Israel, were taking part, the Guardian reported.
Sources close to the incident told the ABC that the co-pilot received an Australian student visa in 2014, studied in Australia from 2015 to 2017 and left afterward. His visa was cancelled in 2019. The ABC said it understood that he lost the visa after leaving a course, which made him ineligible, rather than because of a character concern.
Investigators will look at whether the co-pilot became radicalised in Australia, the ABC reported. A source familiar with the case told the Guardian that he arrived to begin a university course the year after receiving his visa, left in 2017 and had his visa cancelled in 2019 after authorities confirmed he was no longer enrolled.
Hiring and security checks
The ABC reported that the co-pilot was an Omani national and, citing officials, said Oman had barred him from flying on its airline over concerns about extremist views. The Wall Street Journal reported, citing an official quoted by the Guardian, that he moved to an administrative job at Oman Air before flydubai hired him.
Royal Air Maroc, Morocco’s national carrier, told the Associated Press that the co-pilot “completed a three-month theoretical training period with the airline in 2025, as part of the pre-employment process. At the end of this training period, his application was not selected for employment.”
A now-deleted LinkedIn profile reportedly said he studied engineering at an Australian university, according to CNN and other U.S. media outlets cited by the Guardian. Guardian Australia said it hadn’t verified which university he attended. Buckinghamshire New University said a student named Hamam al-Hammami completed a distance-learning course in aviation management but “did not undertake any pilot training at the university.” The ABC quoted university spokesperson Keith Coles saying the student had completed that course and hadn’t undertaken pilot training; the university gave no timing details.
The ABC said the incident raised questions about flydubai’s vetting of potential employees and how the co-pilot boarded a flight carrying Israeli passengers despite Israel’s security protocols. Israel has said it has agreements with foreign carriers to prevent pilots from countries without diplomatic ties from flying there. Israel and Oman don’t have formal diplomatic relations.
Investigations and airline response
The ABC reported that the UAE government has a reputation for taking measures against extremist activities and has previously bristled at criticism of security lapses. An AFP spokesperson said Australia would provide an update on its investigation “at an appropriate time.”
Philip Baum, visiting professor of aviation security at Coventry University, said: “In terms of aviation security itself, obviously we want to have as robust background checks as possible.” He added: “But there are huge limitations on doing background checks in any case, especially in cross-border checks.”
A flydubai spokesperson said on Saturday that the circumstances remained under investigation and the airline couldn’t comment further, the Guardian reported. Flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv were suspended until further notice.