On the morning of September 30, a commercial flight carrying 174 people between Dubai and Tel Aviv became the site of a premeditated act of violence, as a co-pilot allegedly attempted to seize the aircraft in a suicide attack inspired by the September 11 attacks. The plane plunged more than 17,000 feet before crew and passengers overpowered the attacker and two reserve pilots guided the aircraft to safety in Saudi Arabia. What lingers beyond the immediate crisis is a quieter, more unsettling question: how a man can pass every professional and security threshold society has constructed, while p
UAE says Flydubai co-pilot planned suicide attack on Israel's Ben Gurion airport
The captain was seriously wounded in a stabbing attack during the cockpit struggle; 174 passengers and crew were at risk during the aircraft's emergency descent.
He passed every check. Nothing revealed his intent.
Mark
So the co-pilot actually admitted to all of this? He told investigators the whole plan?
Mimi
Yes. He gave what they're calling a detailed confession in the presence of his lawyer. He said he acted alone, that he'd prepared psychologically and physically, that he'd studied the route on previous flights.
Luke
But we should be careful here—we're getting this through the attorney general's statement. We don't have access to the actual confession, the actual evidence. We're taking the UAE's characterization of what he said.
Mimi
That's fair. But the facts of what happened on the plane are solid. He stabbed the captain. He fought for control. The plane dropped 17,000 feet.
Mark
And no one caught any of this beforehand? He passed all the security checks?
Mimi
All of them. License, background check, certificate of good conduct. He'd worked for other airlines. Everything looked clean.
Luke
Which raises the real question: how much can you actually catch in a background check? His radicalization apparently started in 2017 while he was in Australia. That's nine years before he joined Flydubai. There's no indication any of that showed up in official records.
Mark
So he was changing, but invisibly.
Mimi
Exactly. He was taking boxing lessons, consuming extremist material, planning this attack—all while holding down jobs at legitimate airlines and passing every professional vetting.
Luke
The 9/11 inspiration angle—that comes from the prosecutor's assessment, right? Not from something he explicitly said?
Mimi
Right. That's their interpretation of what they found.
Mark
What happens to him now?
Mimi
That's still unclear. He's in custody in the UAE. The investigation is ongoing.
The Pulse
- A co-pilot stabbed the captain mid-flight and forced the aircraft into a steep, uncontrolled dive of more than 17,000 feet in under two minutes, putting 174 lives in immediate peril.
- Passengers and crew broke into the cockpit, physically overpowered the attacker, and two off-duty pilots traveling as passengers took command to prevent catastrophe.
- UAE prosecutors allege the attack was years in the making — rooted in radicalization that began in 2017 in Australia, reinforced by terrorism-promoting material, and rehearsed through prior Tel Aviv flights used as reconnaissance.
- The suspect passed every layer of airline vetting: a valid pilot's license, a clean conduct certificate, and no flags from any security screening at Flydubai or previous employers including Oman Air and Royal Air Maroc.
- Aviation and security agencies now face a structural reckoning — not over a failure of process, but over the limits of process itself when radicalization leaves no institutional trace.
On the morning of September 30, a commercial flight carrying 174 people between Dubai and Tel Aviv became the site of a premeditated act of violence, as a co-pilot allegedly attempted to seize the aircraft in a suicide attack inspired by the September 11 attacks. The plane plunged more than 17,000 feet before crew and passengers overpowered the attacker and two reserve pilots guided the aircraft to safety in Saudi Arabia. What lingers beyond the immediate crisis is a quieter, more unsettling question: how a man can pass every professional and security threshold society has constructed, while privately crossing a far more consequential one.
On the morning of September 30, Flight FZ1073 departed Dubai for Tel Aviv with 174 people aboard. It climbed to 34,000 feet before, just after 9 a.m., it began to fall.
In the cockpit, the co-pilot had stabbed captain Smit Machchhar and was fighting to take control of the aircraft. The plane plunged more than 17,000 feet in roughly two minutes. Machchhar, seriously wounded, collapsed to the cockpit floor. Passengers and crew forced their way in, overpowered the attacker, and stabilized the jet. Two reserve pilots traveling as passengers took command and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia at 9:45 a.m. Both pilots were hospitalized; the captain was later transferred to Abu Dhabi.
In the days that followed, UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi detailed what investigators had found. The co-pilot — identified as 29-year-old Omani national Hamam al-Hammadi — had allegedly modeled the attack on September 11, 2001. He had flown two prior routes to Tel Aviv specifically to study the flight path and airport layout. He told investigators he had prepared psychologically and physically, consuming extremist material and taking boxing lessons. Signs of radicalization, prosecutors said, first appeared in 2017 while he was studying in Australia. He claimed to have acted entirely alone.
Al-Hammadi had worked for Oman Air and Royal Air Maroc before joining Flydubai in January. Investigators found he had satisfied every professional and security requirement — a valid license, a clean conduct certificate, no flags of any kind. The attorney general absolved Flydubai of institutional responsibility.
What remains is the gap between what the system caught and what it could not see: a man who moved through every checkpoint intact, while quietly preparing to use his position to kill hundreds of people. The question now is whether any system can be built to detect that kind of invisible crossing.
On the morning of September 30, Flight FZ1073 lifted off from Dubai bound for Tel Aviv carrying 174 people. The Flydubai aircraft climbed smoothly to 34,000 feet. Then, just after 9 a.m. local time, it began to fall.
Flight-tracking data captured what happened next: the plane plunged more than 17,000 feet in roughly two minutes. In the cockpit, the co-pilot had stabbed the captain, Smit Machchhar, an Indian pilot, and was fighting to seize control of the aircraft. Machchhar, seriously wounded, found himself on the cockpit floor as the jet descended in a steep, uncontrolled dive. Passengers and crew members forced their way into the cabin, overpowered the co-pilot, and regained stability. Two reserve pilots who were traveling as passengers took command and steered the aircraft toward Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia, landing safely at 9:45 a.m. local time. Both pilots were hospitalized; the captain was later transferred to Abu Dhabi after medical clearance.
What emerged in the days that followed was a portrait of a planned attack. The United Arab Emirates' Attorney General, Hamad Saif al-Shamsi, released a statement on Friday detailing what investigators had uncovered about the 29-year-old co-pilot, identified by Reuters and the Associated Press as Hamam al-Hammadi, an Omani national. Prosecutors believe the plot drew inspiration from the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. The suspect had used two previous flights to Tel Aviv to familiarize himself with the route and the airport layout—reconnaissance missions embedded in routine work.
According to al-Shamsi's statement, the co-pilot told investigators that he had prepared for the attack both psychologically and physically. He had consumed material promoting terrorism and taken boxing lessons to build his strength. The signs of his radicalization, prosecutors found, had first surfaced in 2017 while he was studying in Australia. The suspect admitted to acting alone, without involvement from others, and provided what the statement described as a detailed confession outlining his motives and the stages of his planning and execution, all given in the presence of his lawyer.
The co-pilot had worked for several airlines before joining Flydubai in January—Oman Air and Royal Air Maroc among them. When investigators examined Flydubai's recruitment procedures, they found that the suspect had met all professional and security requirements. He held a valid pilot's license and had provided a certificate of good conduct. None of the standard vetting procedures had flagged any indication of extremist views or terrorist intent. The attorney general's statement made clear that Flydubai itself bore no responsibility for what had occurred; the airline's hiring processes had functioned as designed.
Yet the gap between what the screening caught and what it missed remains stark. A man had been hired to fly commercial aircraft, had passed every check, and had spent months preparing to use that position to kill hundreds of people. The question now facing aviation authorities and security agencies is how someone can move through such rigorous professional vetting while undergoing a transformation toward violence—and what systems might detect that shift before it reaches the cockpit.
Notable Quotes
The suspect had prepared psychologically and physically for the attack by viewing material promoting terrorism and taking boxing lessons— UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi
None of the procedures revealed any indications of his extremist views or his intention to carry out a terrorist plot— UAE Attorney General's statement on Flydubai's recruitment procedures
Want the full story?
Read the original at Al Jazeera ↗
War & Conflict