Co-pilot attacked Smit with axe, intention was terror: UAE

A deleted account of Omani co-pilot Hamam Al Hammami carried a video containing cockpit footage showing Israeli aircraft and ended with photographs of former Al-Qaeda chief Zawahiri and Jordanian suicide bomber al-Balawi.

The United Arab Emirates on Saturday described the attack by the Omani co-pilot of FlyDubai flight FZ1073 on Indian Captain Smit Machchhar as an attempted terrorist act, saying he used the aircraft’s emergency crash axe to attack the captain and tried to seize control of the flight controls. The UAE Attorney-General said the co-pilot had begun executing his plan during the flight, while investigators continue to establish the full circumstances, motives and any links to the incident. The development came as it was found that the deleted LinkedIn account of the copilot, identified by Saudi media and an authenticated LinkedIn profile as 29-yearold Hamam Al Hammami, carried two videos that appeared about nine hours after the attack.

One contained cockpit footage showing Israeli aircraft and ended with photographs of former Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri and Jordanian suicide bomber Humam Khalil AbuMulal al-Balawi. The second contained an AI-generated image of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem accompanied by an Arabic poem. Flight FZ1073 was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv on 30 September when Al Hammami attacked Machchhar inside the cockpit, causing the aircraft to descend rapidly before control was regained. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incident as an apparent attempt to crash the aircraft and said those who intervened had “prevented a 9/11 disaster”. Israeli officials said the aircraft dropped from about 33,000 feet to about 17,000 feet in roughly one minute.

FlyDubai confirmed that an altercation took place on the flight deck, that the aircraft transmitted the international squawk code 7500 indicating unlawful interference, and that crew members travelling on duty intervened and secured the aircraft. The aircraft then diverted and landed at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. The aircraft was a FlyDubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 registered A6-FKF. FlyDubai has described the incident publicly as a cockpit altercation and has not itself confirmed the allegation that the co-pilot was trying to crash the aircraft. The Saudi National Transport Safety Center has separately opened an aviation-safety investigation, sending investigators to examine the circumstances, collect evidence and assess the safety aspects in coordination with the relevant authorities. Machchhar was seriously injured and has since been transferred to the UAE for continued medical treatment. The Indian embassy in the UAE said on Saturday that he was recovering well and remained under excellent medical care.

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The UAE leadership has also publicly praised Machchhar for his actions during the incident. Early reports had described Machchhar as having been stabbed, while the UAE Attorney-General’s later account identified the aircraft’s emergency crash axe as the weapon used in the attack. According to accounts provided by UAE officials and people familiar with the incident, Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door despite his injuries, allowing passengers and crew to intervene and restrain the attacker. A reserve pilot travelling on the aircraft then helped take control and land it safely in Tabuk. Dubai Crown Prince and UAE Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who visited Machchhar in hospital on Saturday, said the captain’s actions had allowed passengers and a reserve pilot to intervene and overpower the attacker. FlyDubai’s public statement has described the intervention more generally as being carried out by crew members travelling on duty.

WHO IS AL HAMMAMI?

Al Hammami’s identity was authenticated through a deleted LinkedIn profile that carried his name and matched his reported professional and educational history. The same was also confirmed and by Saudi security sources. The UAE authorities, Oman and FlyDubai have not publicly confirmed his name. People familiar with his background say he was born in the UAE to an Omani father and a Syrian mother and spent significant periods outside Oman, including time in Syria, though the circumstances and significance of that time have not been publicly established.

The profile showed him based in Muscat, with more than 3,000 followers and more than 500 connections. It listed Oman Air and Royal Air Maroc among his professional associations and Buckinghamshire New University among his educational institutions. It did not list FlyDubai, but an official source told this newspaper that he had worked there for eight months before the incident. The first video was shot from the cockpit of a Boeing 737 MAX and included images of Israeli aircraft, among them El Al and Arkia planes. Al-Balawi, whose photograph closed the video, carried out the 2009 Camp Chapman bombing in Afghanistan, which killed seven CIA officers and a Jordanian intelligence officer, along with others. One of the cockpit clips was later geolocated to Dubai International Airport.