A co-pilot who had already been banned from flying by Oman over radical ideological concerns was hired by Flydubai and given access to a cockpit crash axe — which he used to attack the captain mid-flight, nearly sending 182 people into the ground before passengers subdued him. Every American who boards a plane relying on foreign vetting standards just got a reminder that those standards are only as good as the weakest link in the chain.
Flydubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv dropped 16,625 feet in just over 30 seconds over Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after Omani national Hammam al-Hammami attacked Captain Smit Machchhar with the cockpit's emergency crash axe and attempted to seize control of the aircraft, according to UAE Prosecutor General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi. Passengers and crew overwhelmed al-Hammami. A reserve pilot aboard the flight landed the plane at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia, where the co-pilot was detained.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Oman had previously barred al-Hammami from flying over concerns he had adopted radical ideological views, citing people familiar with the matter. Despite that ban, Flydubai — a UAE-government-owned airline — hired him and put him on a route heavily trafficked by Israeli nationals. Breitbart reported that it remains unclear whether Oman shared its concerns with other countries or airlines, and that a UAE spokesperson declined to address the co-pilot's reported history, saying it could "prejudge the outcome of the investigation or interfere with its course." CNBC made no mention of the prior Omani ban.
For days, Emirati authorities avoided calling the incident terrorism. That changed Friday when Anwar Gargash, a senior diplomatic adviser to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, publicly characterized the attack as a "dangerous terrorist act" on X, praising Captain Machchhar's courage. The prosecutor general followed suit Saturday, according to the state news agency WAM.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said al-Hammami had undergone "Islamist radicalization" and "came to crash the plane along with its passengers," while emphasizing investigators had not determined whether he acted alone. "We are clarifying right now if he was sent," Netanyahu said. "And whoever sent him will pay a heavy price." He cautioned it was "too early to say" whether Iran was involved, adding: "We will get to the bottom of this attacker, whether he had accomplices and whether Iran was behind him."
Israeli officials say their investigators will participate in the UAE-led probe. Netanyahu called the passengers who subdued the hijacker heroes who "averted another 9/11."
The open question isn't just what al-Hammami's motives were. It's how an airline owned by a U.S.-allied government hired a pilot another government had already flagged as radicalized — and whether any authority will answer for that failure before the next one gets through.
