FlyDubai Co-Pilot Barred by Oman Over Extremism Concerns — SkimNews
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- Hamam al-Hammami was barred from flying by Oman Air over concerns he had adopted extremist views and was moved to an administrative job, before being later hired by UAE-based FlyDubai, according to a regional official and a person familiar with the matter.
- The UAE says al-Hammami attacked the cockpit with the plane's crash axe on September 30, 2026, in a "terrorist attack," attempting to seize control as the Israel-bound flight with 182 people aboard plummeted sharply.
- Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian national who was badly wounded, used his remaining energy to unlock the cockpit door, allowing passengers to rush in, subdue the co-pilot, and stabilize the flight, which made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia with part of the rudder torn away.
- The co-pilot was born in the UAE with a Syrian mother; how he obtained Omani nationality remains unclear, and security agencies from four regional countries are investigating his motives, aided by the United States and other Western governments.
- Israel and Oman lack formal diplomatic relations, and Israel says it has agreements with foreign carriers to keep pilots of nations without ties from flying there — raising sharp questions about how al-Hammami ended up at the controls of an Israel-bound flight.
- Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said on October 2 that the co-pilot had undergone "Islamist radicalisation," providing no evidence; Oman Air and Oman's government have not publicly responded to repeated inquiries since the incident.
Why it matters: A pilot flagged for extremist sympathies by one Gulf carrier slipped through the hiring process at another and nearly killed 182 people, exposing a gap in cross-border aviation vetting that will now test the UAE's hard-won counter-extremism reputation. The episode also exposes the opacity of how carriers staff Israel-bound routes when flying through countries with no diplomatic ties to Jerusalem.
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