Dubai: The co-pilot of a Flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv assaulted Captain Smit Machchhar with a crash axe and tried to seize control of the aircraft
in an attempted terrorist attack, UAE authorities confirmed to Times Now Breaking. UAE state news agency WAM reported on Saturday that Hamad Saif al-Shamsi said the suspect involved in Wednesday’s FZ1073 incident attempted to take control of the aircraft’s controls. Earlier on Thursday, Times Now had reported that Captain Machchhar’s co-pilot, Hamam al-Hammami, attacked him with a crash axe kept inside the cockpit as emergency equipment. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu had also told media outlets that Machchhar was attacked with a crash axe. A crash axe is a standard emergency tool carried on commercial aircraft. Aviation regulations require such equipment to be available to flight crews for use in emergencies. European aviation rules, for instance, specify that aircraft above a certain weight or passenger capacity must carry at least one crash axe or crowbar in the flight crew compartment.
Who Was Hamam al-Hammami?
According to the Wall Street Journal and ABC News, Oman Air suspended al-Hammami from flying in 2024 after identifying him as a security risk. Multiple sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News that, while working as a co-pilot trainee for Oman Air, he was found in possession of extremist materials.
The officials said al-Hammami was subsequently allowed to continue working for Oman Air in an administrative role. Reports also said Oman Air grounded al-Hammami over concerns about radical ideological views. Fox News reported, citing a source familiar with the matter, that he had allegedly been visiting radical Islamic websites.
According to the Fox News source, al-Hammami later moved to Dubai. The source also said he spent much of his life outside Oman, including with his mother, who is from Syria.
