New details in foiled hijacking

Omani pilot: I planned to crash into BGU

Hamam al-Hamami tells investigators he chose Fly Dubai because it flies to Tel Aviv, waited until the plane was over Jordan to attack the captain, and intended to approach Ben Gurion normally before crashing into the terminal at the last moment

Eliana Fleming

OCT 4, 2026 20:59

2 min read

Hamam al-Hamami, the Omani co-pilot who attempted to hijack a Fly Dubai flight last week, has confessed under interrogation that he planned to crash the aircraft into Ben Gurion Airport, Channel 12 reported Sunday evening. According to the report, that is why al-Hamami waited to attack the Indian captain until the plane was over Jordan, close to Israel.

The plan, investigators say, was to approach Ben Gurion as if for a normal landing, and then, at the last moment when interception would no longer be possible, to crash the plane into the terminal and cause mass casualties. The attack was foiled only because the wounded captain managed to open the cockpit door.

In a separate report on Channel 13, al-Hamami said in his interrogation that he wanted to work for a company that flies to Israel. "I searched and checked which company flies to Tel Aviv, and that's why I chose Fly Dubai," he said. "I tried to get hired by all the companies. I planned the operation even before I was accepted by the company."

Israeli officials also noted that al-Hamami arrived at Ben Gurion in June as part of the flights he was operating. During that visit in June, he gathered intelligence to prepare and plan the terror attack he intended to carry out. A month later, he piloted a flight to Israel that he had planned to crash on Israeli soil, but in the end postponed executing his plan because of his closeness to one of the crew members.