The co-pilot who tried to seize control of a passenger jet flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv last week was planning to launch a suicide attack targeting the passenger terminal at Israel’s international airport, prosecutors in the United Arab Emirates said on Friday.
Hammam al-Hammami attacked the plane’s Indian pilot with an emergency axe, but failed to prevent his badly injured colleague from opening the cockpit’s security door to allow passengers to overpower his assailant.
Passengers then tried to control the aircraft, which was safely landed in Saudi Arabia by an off-duty relief pilot who was among about ۱۸۰ passengers.
Dr Hamad Saif al-Shamsi, attorney-general of the UAE, said on Friday that al-Hammami, who is in Emirate custody, had admitted he had tried to execute a “premeditated terrorist plot to … launch a suicide attack targeting the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, with the aim of causing the greatest possible loss of life”.
The ۲۹-year-old, who was hired by flydubai, a government-owned low-cost airline, began a process of radicalisation while studying in Australia when he was influenced by the hardline takfiri ideology through reading extremist literature and online content glorifying terrorist organisations and suicide attacks, al-Shamsi said in a statement.
“[Al-Hammami] subsequently developed … ideas advocating violence and terrorism. He also drew inspiration from the ۱۱ September ۲۰۰۱ attacks, and the idea of carrying out a similar operation using an aircraft became firmly established in his thinking. According to his confession, this was linked to his decision to pursue a career in aviation.”
Over the weekend, Australian security agencies launched an investigation after it emerged al-Hammami spent about two years in the country as a student until ۲۰۱۷. He left the country without completing his engineering degree.
New Zealand authorities have launched their own investigation after police confirmed al-Hammami underwent flight training there about a year after he abandoned a degree in Australia.
There has been widespread concern about how al-Hammami was able to pass vetting and join a crew flying to Israel. An Omani national, he earned a distance-learning aviation management degree from Buckinghamshire New University in ۲۰۲۳ and was employed by Oman Air from ۲۰۲۰-۲۴, joined Royal Air Maroc in early ۲۰۲۵ and worked there for several months before moving to flydubai in January ۲۰۲۶.
Security officials have been keen to understand if al-Hammami was acting alone or had become involved with a group such as al-Qaida or Islamic State, which could suggest further such attacks might be planned. Emirate authorities believe this is not the case.
“In the presence of his lawyer and with all legally prescribed safeguards ensured, the suspect provided a detailed confession outlining his motives and the stages of planning and execution. He admitted that he had acted alone, without the involvement of others, although investigations are continuing to verify this claim,” al-Shamsi said.
Investigators have found al-Hammami had used two previous flights to Tel Aviv to “familiarise himself with the flight route and the airport”, the Emirati state news agency WAM reported.
The passengers on board the aircraft were overwhelmingly Israeli, with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailing them and the pilot for their bravery after the foiled attack.
