FlyDubai co-pilot used crash ax in ‘terrorist’ cockpit attack, Emirates says

By ISMAEEL NAAR and AARON BOXERMAN

The co-pilot who stabbed the captain of an Israel-bound FlyDubai flight last week used an emergency crash ax in an effort to take over the plane, an official in the United Arab Emirates said Saturday, describing the attack as a “terrorist operation.”

“The co-pilot initiated the execution of his plot during the flight, assaulting the pilot inside the cockpit using an emergency crash ax and attempting to take control of the aircraft’s flight controls,” Hamad Saif Al-Shamsi, the UAE attorney general, said in remarks carried by state media.

UAE authorities have been investigating the event since Wednesday, when the co-pilot’s attack led the plane to plummet thousands of feet with more than 170 passengers on board, mostly Israelis.

Israeli officials have said the assault likely aimed to crash the plane and kill everyone on board.

A handful of people stormed the cabin, subduing the attacker and assisting the wounded captain before the flight crew made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

Crash axes are generally stored in the cockpits of planes for emergencies. Experts say the axes are often kept behind the co-pilot on the flight deck, covered but unlocked — meaning the assailant could have had relatively easy access.

Al-Shamsi did not identify the co-pilot, who was later brought back to the Emirates.

But two people briefed on the matter said Saturday that the co-pilot had embraced extreme Islamist views, prompting security officials in Oman to scrutinize him earlier.

The co-pilot was identified as an Omani man named Hamam al-Hammami, who was the first officer on FlyDubai Flight 1073, the two people said, as did an Arab official.

The investigation so far indicated that he had acted alone and had no known ties with Iran, which has long sought to target Israelis abroad, the Arab official and two U.S. officials said.

The three officials and the two people briefed on the Omani scrutiny of al-Hammami spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation into the attack.

The cockpit assault has riveted Israel and deepened anxieties about the safety of Israelis abroad, even aboard carriers from countries that maintain open diplomatic ties with the country. It has also prompted questions about how the co-pilot slipped through tight security screenings.

FlyDubai became the first Emirati airline to fly to Tel Aviv, Israel, in November 2020, roughly two months after Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab countries. The low-cost carrier operated up to 10 daily flights between Tel Aviv and Dubai, allowing Israelis easier travel routes to Asia.

FlyDubai largely kept up that service to Israel despite three years of war in the Middle East, even as other carriers canceled or reduced their flights to Tel Aviv, especially after the onset of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in February. But the airline suspended flights to Tel Aviv until further notice after Wednesday’s attack.

The UAE is home to a small but growing Israeli and Jewish population, but their sense of safety in the Persian Gulf nation was rattled in recent years amid Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. Last year, the UAE government sentenced three Uzbek nationals to death for the abduction and “premeditated murder with terrorist intention” of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi in 2024.