BREAKING NEWS: UAE To Seek Death Penalty For Flydubai Terrorist: REPORT

[Feroze]

UAE To Seek Death Penalty For Flydubai Terrorist: REPORT​

Report cites top UAE official

Hank Berrien•Oct 4, 2026


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The terrorist co-pilot who tried to plunge a Dubai-to-Tel Aviv jetliner into a suicide dive is facing possible execution, according to a report from Israeli outlet Ynet citing a top Emirati official.

Abu Dhabi authorities will likely throw the book at 29-year-old terrorist Hamam al-Hammami, demanding the maximum sentence under law following the mid-air nightmare aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073.


Mossad operatives and Israeli aviation experts have arrived in Abu Dhabi to interrogate al-Hammami. They’re joining intelligence agents from Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the U.S. in a multi-nation probe.

Investigators suspect Hammami wasn’t just trying to dump the Boeing 737 MAX 8 into the sea; he was plotting a horrifying, 9/11-style Kamikaze attack aimed straight at Tel Aviv’s iconic Azrieli Towers.

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The horror unfolded in the skies when al-Hammami hacked Indian-born Captain Smit Machchhar using the cockpit’s own emergency crash axe. The terrorist pulled the controls into a death spiral, dropping the jet 14,000 feet in thirty seconds. Bleeding and battered, Captain Machchhar fought back, popping the reinforced cockpit door open just in time for Israeli passengers to storm the cockpit. An Israeli passenger, Yaniv Hion, grabbed the controls and brought the plane out of its plunge before an off-duty pilot was rushed in to guide the plane to a miraculous emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

“When I got inside, I saw the attacker on the controls, between the two seats,” Hion recalled. “There were no pilots in the seats. One was down, and the attacker was on the controls. Another person came in with me. I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold, and first of all pulled him out. … He was trying to destroy the controls in order to disable the plane. That’s what I saw.”

New details about al-Hammami’s past are emerging. According to regional sources, Oman Air barred him from flying over concerns that he had adopted extremist views; Fox News reported this was linked to visits to radical Islamic websites. He was reportedly moved to an administrative job at the airline. In 2025, he completed three months of pre-employment training with Royal Air Maroc but wasn’t hired.

Hammami reportedly traveled to Syria. He later joined Flydubai, where he had worked for less than a year. His hiring checks reportedly focused on criminal records rather than signs of radicalization. According to an Israeli official, this was his first flight into Israel, raising questions about how an Omani pilot was assigned to the route at all, since Israel’s agreement with Flydubai bars pilots from countries without diplomatic ties.

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An Emirati source admitted the global pilot shortage left airlines rushing hiring checks, calling the oversight a “very serious failure.”

Israel is tightening crew screenings on all incoming foreign flights.

UAE To Seek Death Penalty For Flydubai Terrorist: REPORT

The terrorist co-pilot who tried to plunge a Dubai-to-Tel Aviv jetliner into a suicide dive is facing possible execution, according to a report from Israeli outlet Ynet citing a top Emirati official.Abu Dhabi authorities will likely throw the book at 29-year-old terrorist Hamam al-Hammami...

www.dailywire.com

 

[Feroze]

Flydubai suspect expected to face death penalty in UAE​

Analysis: Senior Emirati source says Mossad and Israeli aviation experts joined the Abu Dhabi probe alongside Saudi, Omani and US intelligence officials, as investigators examine claims he planned to seize the cockpit and strike Tel Aviv’s Azrieli Towers​

Smadar Perry|00:43
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Saudi Arabia
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Terror
United Arab Emirates
Israel
flydubai
Mossad


The man suspected of trying to turn a Flydubai passenger jet into a weapon is expected to face the death penalty in the United Arab Emirates once the investigation is completed, according to a senior Emirati source. But before that happens, investigators in Abu Dhabi will have to answer a far more uncomfortable question: How was Hamam al-Hammami allowed anywhere near a cockpit?
UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi is overseeing the investigation. One of the emirate’s most senior officials confirmed to me that Mossad personnel and Israeli aviation experts had arrived secretly in Abu Dhabi to take part, alongside senior Saudi and Omani intelligence officials and at least two representatives of U.S. intelligence agencies. It is not yet clear whether all will enter the interrogation room. The Israelis will.

Hammam al-Hamami

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The investigation is focusing on the allegation that al-Hamami, a 29-year-old Omani co-pilot, intended not simply to crash the aircraft but to seize control from the Indian captain and fly it into a high-rise in Israel, in an attack modeled on the Twin Towers. According to information emerging from the investigation, the likely target was Tel Aviv’s Azrieli Towers. That makes what happened before the flight even more troubling. Al-Hamami had reportedly been removed from flying duties at Oman Air after extremist material was discovered in his possession. He was shifted to an administrative role and ultimately dismissed. He later moved to Morocco, traveled to Syria and was hired by Flydubai, where he spent eight months and flew to Israel dozens of times, including only days before the incident.
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The failures appear to run across several borders. Oman did not pass its concerns to Abu Dhabi. The UAE did not conduct the kind of background investigation that might have exposed them. Israel, despite requiring foreign airlines to submit crew lists in advance, apparently did not insist on learning more about an Omani pilot whose previous employment had ended under suspicious circumstances.

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The Emirati source is not trying to disguise the scale of that failure. Airlines worldwide are short thousands of pilots, he noted, creating pressure to recruit qualified candidates quickly. “You wouldn’t imagine that we would knowingly recruit a terrorist to an airline,” he said. “It is certainly fair to say there was a very serious failure here.” Investigators are now looking at who recruited al-Hamami, how he was hired so quickly and whether the recruitment process itself warrants scrutiny. His repeated visits to Syria are also being examined, including possible links to extremist circles.

For Israel, the lesson is equally clear. Screening a foreign airline is not enough if the people sitting in its cockpit are not scrutinized with the same seriousness. The episode is likely to force much deeper checks of foreign flight crews bound for Israel, regardless of the airline or country involved.
And in Abu Dhabi, the ending already appears to be taking shape. The senior source said al-Hamami is expected to receive the death penalty once the investigation and legal proceedings are completed. No passengers were killed, but Emirati authorities appear determined to impose the harshest punishment available, both as a deterrent and as a message to whoever may have helped radicalize or encourage him.
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Flydubai suspect expected to face death penalty in UAE

Analysis: Senior Emirati source says Mossad and Israeli aviation experts joined the Abu Dhabi probe alongside Saudi, Omani and US intelligence officials, as investigators examine claims he planned to seize the cockpit and strike Tel Aviv’s Azrieli Towers

www.ynetnews.com

 

[Feroze]

 

[Hakwa Nadro]

that is quite convenient, sorry @Feroze you could not get your co-pilot interview. they are set to destroy a key evidence in the case.

 

[Feroze]

that is quite convenient, sorry @Feroze you could not get your co-pilot interview. they are set to destroy a key evidence in the case.

well if that bastard co-pilot intended to crash the plane and murder 178 people, he deserves to be hanged.

He has shamed us.

 

[Hakwa Nadro]

well if that bastard co-pilot intended to crash the plane and murder 178 people, he deserves to be hanged.

He has shamed us.

absolutely, but that is a big "IF"

 

[Feroze]

absolutely, but that is a big "IF"

Yes I am waiting for further details to come out on ARAB NEWS (Official newspaper of Saudi Arabia / KSA), DAWN.COM, AL JAZEERA and BBC.