The Omani pilot suspected of attacking his colleague on a Flydubai plane had been excluded from Oman Air due to extremist views.

Two informed sources told CNN that the pilot suspected of assaulting another pilot on a Flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv on Wednesday had been excluded from a previous job with the Omani national airline last year. This is due to concerns related to his extremist views.

According to the two sources and an Israeli official, the pilot is an Omani citizen named Humam Al-Hamami. This name was also confirmed by official Saudi media. One of the sources added that Al-Hamami was born in the UAE to an Omani father and a Syrian mother, and spent many years of his life in the Emirates.

A personal profile on LinkedIn bearing the name “Hammam Al-Hamami” showed that he worked for Oman Air for seven years, which he left in February 2025, before joining Royal Air Maroc in June 2025 and leaving in January 2026. The file did not indicate any work he had with Flydubai.

One source confirmed that this LinkedIn profile belonged to the Flydubai pilot involved in an incident on Wednesday, but this profile was later deleted. CNN has reached out to LinkedIn for comment. A second source - a diplomat from the region - also told CNN that the suspect had been excluded from the flight training program at Oman Air due to concerns related to his extremist views, and was assigned to other duties at the Omani national carrier.

Threats of maiming and killing

Only two posts were published on the personal account on LinkedIn, and they were published consecutively and with a short time difference on Wednesday, that is, about nine hours after the incident occurred.

It is unclear who made these posts or whether they were scheduled in advance.

The first publication included a series of video clips inside the cockpit of a Boeing 737 Max; It is worth noting that the plane that was diverted to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during the incident on Wednesday belonged to Flydubai and was of the same model (737 MAX 8).

In one of the clips - whose geographical location was identified by CNN at Dubai International Airport - the person filming the video zooms in on a plane belonging to the Israeli airline El Al.

The cockpit screen in the video showed the flight number (OMA624) and the date: October 11, 2023. This flight number corresponds to a flight that usually departs from Dubai to Muscat, and the date also matches the period in which he worked for Oman Air.

Other shots in the video show additional planes belonging to El Al and Arkia - another Israeli airline.

The video concludes with a photo of Ayman al-Zawahiri, who assumed leadership of Al-Qaeda after the killing of Osama bin Laden, and a photo of Humam Khalil Abu Malal al-Balawi, who was loyal to Al-Qaeda and killed nine people, including seven CIA officers and contractors, in a suicide attack in Afghanistan in 2009.

The second post includes an AI-generated image showing the three holiest sites in Islam - Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem - connected by a continuous glowing path. In the background, a challenging poem speaks about rejecting humiliation, not fearing death, and defending dignity.

Al-Hamami’s page on LinkedIn indicated that he studied at the University of New Buckinghamshire in England. A source at the university confirmed to CNN that a man with that name had completed a three-year distance learning program and graduated with a degree in aviation management in 2023. The source added that Al-Hamami did not receive any aircraft piloting training as part of his study program.

Instagram:

The same two clips were published at approximately the same time on an Instagram account with the same name and photos, before that account was also deleted. CNN has contacted Meta for comment.

X (formerly Twitter)

A CNN analysis of El-Hamami's deleted Twitter account shows that he was deeply religious and misogynistic.

In posts that were later deleted, Al-Hamami talked about the difficulties his mother faced in finding a future wife for him who would accept his conditions of wearing the niqab (face covering) and stopping working after marriage.

“They all refused,” said a post from February 2022. “Then my mother told them: ‘My son is a pilot,’ and suddenly they all agreed.”

The publications also strongly criticized mixed workplaces, considering them to have a corrupting influence on women.

A post from January 2022 asked: “How many respectable, religious girls have been spoiled and manipulated in co-ed work environments?”

Nearly 3,000 deleted tweets – posted between 2021 and 2022 – were analyzed and classified using an AI-based semantic search model.

Investigating links to terrorism

Meanwhile, there is growing confusion in Israel over how a citizen of Oman - a country that does not recognize Israel - was allowed to serve as a pilot on a flight to Tel Aviv, despite Israel's strict aviation security measures.

The Israeli authorities confirmed that the names of all passengers and crew members were in the possession of the Israeli authorities before the flight took off, but indicated that questions regarding security vetting procedures for crew members should be directed to the Ministry of Transport. Shin Bet (the Israeli internal security service, which is similar to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)) also referred CNN to the Ministry of Transport, explaining that it is the entity “responsible for all security affairs related to foreign airlines.”

However, a spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Transport stated, during a press briefing held late on Saturday evening, that the ministry’s protocols do not include verifying the names of the plane’s crew members.

“The Department of Transport’s procedures do not address the threat the pilot may pose,” the spokesman said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that there is a belief that the suspect has undergone a process of "extremist Islamic ideological indoctrination."

The Israeli official told CNN that Al-Hamami had worked for Flydubai for only eight months, while a fourth source reported that the alleged attacker had previously worked for Royal Air Maroc.

In a statement to the Associated Press, Royal Air Maroc explained that the suspect received training with the company for three months in 2025 as part of pre-employment procedures, but was not selected for work.

This information raises concerns about the importance of conducting background checks and checks when hiring in the aviation sector. CNN has contacted both Oman Air and the Dubai Government Media Office for comment.

Flydubai stated that it could not comment as long as the incident was still under investigation.

Without revealing the name of the suspect, the UAE Attorney General stated that the co-pilot on the aforementioned flight assaulted his colleague using an axe, and then tried to take control of the plane in an attempt to carry out a “terrorist act.” It is noteworthy that the presence of emergency axes (designated for plane crash situations) is a mandatory requirement on most passenger aircraft.