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TEL AVIV – A Flydubai pilot attacked his flight captain with a crash ax and tried to take control of the planes in an attempted terrorist attack, a United Arab Emirates official said on Saturday.
The suspect is Omani citizen Hamam al-Hammami, multiple sources from three agencies briefed on the investigation and a diplomat in the Middle East told NBC News. Authorities have not officially released the identity.
The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that al-Hammami “was previously banned from flying by Oman due to concerns that he had adopted radical ideological views.”
Oman Air did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether he had previously worked for the company.
Emirati officials are conducting investigations into the Midair incident, which occurred on Wednesday on a flight carrying 174 mostly Israeli passengers from Dubai to Tel Aviv. A crash was averted, according to witnesses and Israeli officials, when the crew and passengers were able to enter the cabin and subdue the attacker.
“Investigations into the incident on board Flydubai flight FZ1073 revealed that the co-pilot attempted to carry out a terrorist act,” UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said in an update on Saturday.
“The co-pilot started executing his plan during the flight, attacking the captain in the flight deck with a crash ax and trying to take control of the plane’s flight controls,” he said.
Al-Hammami was transferred from Saudi Arabia to Abu Dhabi on Thursday, the Saudi Interior Ministry said. The statement said his health had “improved”, but his medical condition was unclear.
Al Shamsi said investigations are ongoing to “establish the full circumstances, motives and all links related to the incident.”
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said Friday that Israeli investigators are “joining their Emirati colleagues to investigate this attempted mass murder and establish exactly what happened, its motives and background.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday: “As time passes, the picture becomes clearer: The attacker had experienced Islamic radicalization. He boarded the plane, along with his passengers.”
He did not say how he reached this conclusion, but added: “We are investigating whether he was sent, and whoever sent him will pay a very high price.”
Netanyahu’s spokesman Doron Spielman told NBC News that the suspect “talks about killing Jews on his social media.”
The flight captain, Indian national captain Smit Machchhar, spoke for the first time on Friday from a hospital in Abu Dhabi.
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Flydubai pilot speaks out following mid-air attack
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Machchhar was widely praised for his efforts to prevent the plane from taking off by opening the cockpit door and allowing passengers and crew members to rush inside.
Speaking from his hospital bed, Machchhar said he was “severely injured” and “could feel the plane going down.”
“I acted for my own life, but at the same time I knew I couldn’t let them all die,” he said in a video call released by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, adding that he told himself to give “just one last push” to the cockpit door.
The Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi called Machchhar the “Indian Braveheart,” and said in an X post Saturday that he “remains under excellent medical care and is recovering well.”
The Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Hamdan bin Mohammed, posted photos on X after visiting Machchhar in the hospital in which he was seen kissing the pilot’s head and shaking his hand. Machchhar, with one arm in a cast and medical dressings on his head, appears awake and smiling.
“From us, and from the leadership of the nation, he has our full appreciation and praise,” he wrote.
Ayelet Epstein, a 47-year-old Israeli, told NBC News that her 14-year-old daughter asked if she was going to die when she heard screams and “a big fall started.”
“I told her, no, I don’t think we’re going to be OK,” she said, adding that “I tried to rationalize things in a hopeful way for her.”
Epstein thanked Machchhar “from the bottom of my heart” for saving her life, praising his bravery.
A Flydubai spokesperson said on Saturday: “We recognize there are many questions at this stage; however, the circumstances surrounding the incident are still under investigation. We are therefore not in a position to comment further than our published statements.”
“We remain fully committed to supporting the ongoing investigation and are in close coordination with the relevant government authorities and regulators,” the spokesperson added.
President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday that there would be renewed strikes against Iran if it was behind the attack.
“You just ask them,” he said. “They know what happened. They are being hit very hard.”
There are no indications that Iran directed or was involved in the attack, a senior US official briefed on the Israeli investigation told NBC News.
Raf Sanchez and Shira Pinson reported from Tel Aviv. Freddie Clayton reported from London. Tom Winter and Jonathan Dienst reported from New York.
