Co-pilot told interrogators he wanted to crash flydubai jet and was 'not afraid of death', WSJ reports
The Wall Street Journal, citing a Saudi official briefed on the interrogation, reports flydubai co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami told investigators he deliberately wanted to bring down flight FZ1073 and was 'not afraid of death', as three countries probe his past.
The co-pilot who attacked the captain of flydubai flight FZ1073 with a crash axe told interrogators he wanted to deliberately crash the aircraft and was “not afraid of death”, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a Saudi official briefed on the questioning.
The confession, attributed by the Journal to the Saudi official, came after the aircraft’s emergency landing in Tabuk, north-western Saudi Arabia, on September 30. The Dubai-to-Tel Aviv service, carrying 172 passengers and crew, plunged 14,000ft during the altercation, The National reported.
The co-pilot is a 29-year-old Omani national, Hamam al-Hammami. The UAE’s attorney general, Hamad Al Shamsi, formally classified the incident as an attempted terrorist act on Saturday, and authorities in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Israel are investigating whether he acted alone or had links to outside groups, including Iran.
The Journal also reported that Oman Air barred al-Hammami from flying duties after discovering he had visited extremist websites, put him through a deradicalisation programme and moved him to a desk job before he joined flydubai in February 2026. Born to an Omani father and a Syrian mother, he spent part of his youth in Syria during the country’s civil war.
Flydubai has described the incident as an “altercation” and said it cannot comment while investigations continue. All allegations about the co-pilot’s motives remain attributed to the Journal’s reporting, not established fact.
Sources: https://www.thestatesman.com/world/australia-probes-flydubai-attackers-past-after-revelation-he-studied-there-before-cockpit-terror-bid-1503646755.html | https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/uae/2026/10/03/co-pilot-on-flydubai-flight-attempted-to-carry-out-terrorist-act-uaes-attorney-general-says/
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