Co-pilot of Dubai-Tel Aviv flight identified: Oman banned him from flight due to radicalisation

US media have published the details of the co-pilot suspected of the attempted terrorist attack on the Dubai-Tel Aviv flight. On a profile attributable to him there are two videos that recall the accident. Meanwhile, it emerges that Oman had banned him from flying due to radicalisation. The first flight bringing Israeli citizens home from the United Arab Emirates has returned home after the suspension of connections

The co-pilot suspected of Wednesday's attempted terrorist attack on the FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv has been identified by several US media as Hamam al-Hammami, a 29-year-old Omani. CNN wrote that 2 posts were published on a LinkedIn profile under that name - later removed - 9 hours after the accident. The first with footage shot from the cockpit of a Boeing 737 Max, with footage of planes from Israeli companies such as El Al, and a photo of Ayman al-Zawahiri, who led al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden. The second with images of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. It is unclear who made the posts or whether they were pre-planned.

Previous work and radicalization

The co-pilot was removed from his previous post for Oman's national airline last year over concerns about his extremist views. Al-Hammami was born in the United Arab Emirates to an Omani father and a Syrian mother and spent several years of his life in the United Arab Emirates, added one of the sources cited by CNN. The LinkedIn profile with his name indicates that he worked for Oman Air for seven years, leaving the company in February 2025, before joining Royal Air Maroc in June 2025 leaving it in January 2026. One of the US media sources confirmed that the profile belongs to the FlyDubai co-pilot involved in the accident, but the profile has since been removed. An Israeli official told CNN that al-Hammami had worked for FlyDubai for just eight months.

He had lost his flying qualification

Saudi broadcaster Al Arabiya, citing an "informed source", reports that al-Hammami had left Oman after being removed from the Gulf country's airline and losing his flying qualification. According to the broadcaster, he may have been influenced by "extremist ideas" coming from "radical groups" in Syria, his mother's country of origin and where he had spent time even though he was born in and had lived for a long time in the United Arab Emirates.

Oman had banned the co-pilot from flying for radicalisation

The man who stabbed the captain of flight FZ1073 had previously been banned from the cockpit by Oman due to fears he had adopted radical ideological positions, informed sources told the Wall Street Journal. Despite this ban, the Omani pilot was hired by FlyDubai and was tasked with operating on the delicate route connecting the United Arab Emirates and Israel. It is not clear whether Oman shared concerns about the pilot's radicalization with other countries or airlines, nor was it possible to know the nature of that radicalization.

He used the emergency axe

The co-pilot of flight FZ1073 used the emergency ax in the cockpit to carry out a "terrorist" attack, the UAE Attorney General has said.

The first flight from the Emirates after the stop landed in Tel Aviv

Meanwhile, the first flight that brought Israeli citizens back home from the United Arab Emirates, after the suspension of connections following the accident on the FlyDubai flight, landed in Tel Aviv in the early hours of Saturday, as reported by the Israeli airport authority website. The repatriation flight, operated by Israeli company Arkia, arrived from Dubai at Ben Gurion Airport shortly after 1am. The Arkia flight took off on Friday, becoming the first flight operated by an Israeli company from the Emirates since FlyDubai suspended the route to Israel and El Al canceled flights scheduled to bring Israeli citizens home.