The Omani co-pilot who attacked his captain on a Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv last week had already been grounded in his own country over fears he had turned to extremism, and had been turned down by a second airline, before the Dubai carrier hired him and assigned him to fly Israelis.
Omani authorities had banned him from flying over concerns about his radical ideological views, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing several people familiar with the matter. Flydubai hired him anyway, though the Journal said it is unclear whether the airline knew about the issue. It is also unclear whether Oman shared its concerns with other countries or airlines. Neither the Omani government nor Flydubai responded to the paper's requests for comment.
The co-pilot has been identified as Hamam al-Hammami by three people with knowledge of the situation, including a Gulf diplomat and a Western diplomat, who spoke to the Associated Press. Earlier reports put his age at 29.
A second airline also passed on him. Royal Air Maroc, Morocco's national carrier, told the AP that al-Hammami completed three months of theoretical training with the airline in 2025 as part of its pre-employment process, and that his application was not selected at the end of it. The airline did not say why. abcnews
CNN added further detail on his time in Oman. Sources told the network he was removed from flight training at Oman Air and moved to a different role amid concerns over his radical views. An Israeli official told CNN he had worked for Flydubai for only eight months.
The vetting he did receive appears to have been thin. A Gulf diplomat told the AP that al-Hammami went through standard security checks before being hired, but that these seem to have focused on criminal convictions and did not look deeper for signs of radicalization. A regional official said he was born in the UAE to a Syrian mother, holds Omani nationality through his father, and had traveled to Syria.
For Israel, the reports sharpen a question that has hung over the case since Wednesday. Oman does not recognize Israel, and several Israeli agencies, including the Shin Bet, the Mossad, the military and the Transportation Ministry, are investigating how an Omani pilot came to be part of the crew on a Tel Aviv flight. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the co-pilot was suicidal and had undergone radical Islamic indoctrination.
The jet's Indian captain, Smit Machchhar, was assaulted by his co-pilot but managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to overpower the attacker before the plane made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. Both men were transferred to the UAE on Thursday. Investigators are still trying to establish whether al-Hammami acted alone or had ties to any extremist group, the Gulf diplomat told the AP.
