Flydubai hijack probe expands as New Zealand scrutinizes co-pilot's flight training

On September 30th, a flydubai flight carrying 182 people toward Tel Aviv nearly became a tragedy. The co-pilot, Hamam al-Hammami, a 29-year-old Omani national, allegedly left his seat to pray, then returned to the cockpit with a crash axe. What followed was a violent struggle at 35,000 feet. Captain Smit Machchhar felt what he described as a "big blow" to the back of his head, then another, and another. He realized in that moment that the threat was not mechanical—it was the man sitting beside him. Despite his injuries, Machchhar managed to unlock the cockpit door, allowing passengers to overpower al-Hammami. A reserve pilot on the flight took control of the aircraft and landed it safely at a regional airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where authorities detained the co-pilot. The United Arab Emirates' prosecutor general characterized the incident as a terrorist attack. Israeli and regional officials believe al-Hammami may have originally planned such an attack in July but postponed it.

Now, in the aftermath, multiple countries are racing to understand who al-Hammami is and how he came to this moment. New Zealand police confirmed this week that he spent 175 days in the country between November 30, 2018, and May 23, 2019, on a student visa. During that time, he completed flight training for a UK-based aviation company that no longer operates in New Zealand. Assistant Commissioner Michael Johnson announced that police are now investigating his activities during his stay. The discovery has triggered a broader examination of al-Hammami's movements and associations across three continents.

Australia launched its own investigation after learning that al-Hammami had lived there for roughly two years as a student until 2017. He attended RMIT University in Melbourne, where he enrolled in an engineering degree but never finished it. He simply left the country without completing his studies. During his time in Melbourne, he appeared in social media photos—now deleted—at a shopping center food court with other teenagers. A post on what appears to be his now-deleted X account, reported by the UK's Telegraph, described his years studying abroad as "the golden years of my religious commitment." The same post claimed that when he returned to Oman, he became less observant in his faith.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the country's peak Jewish organization, issued a statement calling for a thorough investigation into al-Hammami's associations and influences during his time in Australia. Co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin pointed to a pattern of concern: the availability of extremist literature in religious bookstores, the presence of preachers advocating violence, and the capacity for recruiters and street preachers to radicalize vulnerable individuals. "We have to understand who associated with this alleged terrorist, who influenced him and what vestiges of his murderous ideology remain," Ryvchin said. The question hanging over the investigation is whether al-Hammami acted alone or whether he was part of a larger network.

The captain's account of the attack, shared in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, laid bare the violence of those moments in the cockpit. Machchhar described the repeated blows, the realization that his co-pilot had turned against him and everyone on the plane. Yet his quick thinking—unlocking the security door despite his injuries—gave passengers the chance to act. A reserve pilot among the passengers took the controls. The aircraft landed safely. What could have been a catastrophe became, instead, a story of intervention and survival. But the investigation into how a man trained in aviation across two countries came to attempt such an attack is only beginning.