On the morning of 30 September, flydubai Flight 1073 was flying from Dubai toward Tel Aviv with 174 people on board. Its co-pilot, according to the UAE's attorney general, was planning a terrorist act. The attorney general says that before the jet reached Israel, the co-pilot attacked Captain Smit Machchhar with the cockpit's emergency crash axe and tried to take the controls.
Machchhar is an Indian national. He was badly wounded but managed to open the cockpit door. Passengers forced their way in and overpowered the attacker. Two off-duty flydubai pilots who were flying as passengers then took the controls and landed the Boeing 737 MAX at Tabuk, in northern Saudi Arabia. Everyone on board survived.
A week later, more is known about the co-pilot and what he allegedly intended. Much of it rests on sources, mostly in Israel and the Gulf, who describe interrogations taking place in UAE custody.
From Melbourne to the flydubai cockpit
Diplomatic sources quoted by AP, Reuters and ABC News name him as Hamam al-Hammami, a 29-year-old Omani. He studied at a university in Melbourne. Australia's Joint Counter Terrorism Team, which includes federal and Victoria police and the domestic intelligence agency ASIO, said on Sunday it is investigating his 'links to Australia'. The Financial Times reports that while he was there he allegedly visited radical mosques and extremist websites.
He returned home and joined Oman Air. Sources told ABC News that in 2024, while he was a trainee co-pilot there, he was found with extremist material. Oman Air took him off flying duties but kept him in an administrative job. AP and the Wall Street Journal report that he was barred from flying in Oman over concerns he had adopted extremist views. Israel Hayom reports that intelligence services are also examining a period he spent in Syria. They want to know whether he was radicalised there, and whether he had links to an armed group backed by Iran. These lines of inquiry are still open. A Gulf diplomat told AP that investigators had so far found no links to militant groups and believed he had acted alone.
How a pilot grounded by one Gulf airline came to fly for another, and on a route to Israel, is now the main question for investigators. flydubai hired him about eight months before the attack. The Wall Street Journal reports that authorities in three countries missed several chances to stop him. Haaretz reports that Israel received the full crew and passenger list before the flight left Dubai, but his name was not flagged. flydubai has said there are 'many questions'. It says it will not comment while the investigation continues.
According to Israeli media reports of his interrogation, Tel Aviv was his destination and his target. Israel's Channel 12 reports he told investigators he planned to kill the captain, carry on with the flight as normal, get clearance to land at Ben Gurion Airport, and then crash into a building or into an aircraft on the ground. An Israeli source told the Jerusalem Post that al-Hammami said, "The dream was to crash into Ben-Gurion Airport". Israeli officials quoted by Arutz Sheva said the target was the airport terminal.
Other reports describe a second option. Italy's Corriere della Sera, citing Israeli intelligence, says he also considered crashing into tower blocks in Tel Aviv. Some outlets, attributing it to an Emirati official, name the Azrieli Towers near the Kirya, Israel's military headquarters. One report, by News.com.au, says that if he could not reach Israel he would have turned toward a US military base in Jordan. No other outlet has reported that claim.
Reports suggest the plan had been in preparation for some time. Investigators were reportedly told he gathered information on earlier flydubai flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv, and that his planning began before flydubai hired him. Israel's Channel 13 reports he joined flydubai precisely because it flies to Tel Aviv. Channel 12 reports he meant to strike in July but called it off at the last moment, because a member of that flight's crew was a friend. He reportedly postponed again before going ahead in late September.
A plan that failed in the cockpit
According to Israeli reports, the attack did not go as planned. Instead of killing the captain quietly and flying on toward Ben Gurion, he got into a violent struggle on the flight deck while the aircraft was still far from Israel. When Machchhar opened the door and passengers rushed in, al-Hammami pushed the jet into a nose dive at 9:21 a.m., apparently to crash it into the desert. Flight-tracking data cited by the BBC show the aircraft lost about 17,000 feet in roughly two minutes. Earlier reports had given a smaller drop over a shorter time. The deadheading pilots pulled the jet out of the dive. They landed at Tabuk at 9:45 local time, and the passengers flew on to Tel Aviv that evening on a replacement aircraft.
Avoided: a 9/11-style attack
None of the reports gives a precise estimate of what the attack could have caused. What the alleged targets would have meant is clearer. Either a fully loaded airliner crashing into a working airport terminal or into an occupied office tower in central Tel Aviv. Several Israeli and international outlets have described the plot as an attempted '9/11-style' attack. If those accounts are accurate, the deaths would not have been limited to the people on board. Israeli officials have called the outcome a major disaster averted. That assessment comes from people closely involved, and it rests on statements investigators have not yet tested in court.
Al-Qaeda's response showed how such an attack would have been used. On Saturday, a statement praising the attempted takeover and urging similar attacks on aircraft carrying Americans and Israelis circulated on Telegram before it was taken down. CNN reports that new posts appeared on al-Hammami's LinkedIn and Instagram accounts about nine hours after the attack, while he was already in custody. Both accounts were later deleted. It is not known who posted them.
Al-Hammami was moved from Saudi Arabia to the UAE on Thursday. Sources say he is cooperating with investigators and has indicated he intended to crash the aircraft in Israel. World Israel News reports he is expected to face the death penalty under UAE law. No official has confirmed what he will be charged with. The UAE is leading the investigation, with Israeli investigators involved and authorities in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Australia and the US also assisting. flydubai's flights to Tel Aviv are suspended 'until further notice'.
Machchhar was flown to Abu Dhabi for treatment. The Indian embassy says he is stable and 'recovering well'. Israel's prime minister called his actions 'extraordinary bravery'. Accounts of the flight suggest the plan was stopped by a wounded captain who opened the door the passengers who rushed in, and two pilots who happened to be on board.