--- title: "FlyDubai Co-Pilot Planned Ben Gurion Crash Before He Was Hired, Israeli Officials Say" description: "Israel had a shoot-down protocol ready as its own agencies argued over who should have kept an Omani pilot off the route" author: "Jan Sokol" published: 2026-10-05T16:55:53Z modified: 2026-10-05T21:16:35Z url: https://rews.cc/a/flydubai-co-pilot-planned-ben-gurion-crash-before-he-was-hir-dd9373 language: en tags: ["aviation", "security", "israel", "terrorism", "drones", "mideast", "asia"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # FlyDubai Co-Pilot Planned Ben Gurion Crash Before He Was Hired, Israeli Officials Say *Israel had a shoot-down protocol ready as its own agencies argued over who should have kept an Omani pilot off the route* By Jan Sokol · October 5, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/flydubai-co-pilot-planned-ben-gurion-crash-before-he-was-hir-dd9373 ## In brief - Israeli officials say the Omani co-pilot told UAE interrogators he planned the attack before FlyDubai hired him - Sources say he meant to crash flight FZ1073 into Ben Gurion airport and had considered it on an earlier Tel Aviv flight - Captain Smit Machchhar opened the cockpit door; passengers and staff subdued the attacker and the plane landed in Tabuk - Israeli sources told CBS the air force readied a shoot-down protocol that only the prime minister could authorise - Israeli agencies deny responsibility for vetting foreign crews; Netanyahu has ordered a review of foreign aviation Some job applications are also confessions. Two Israeli officials with knowledge of the probe told Reuters that the co-pilot of FlyDubai flight FZ1073 has told interrogators in the United Arab Emirates that he went looking for airlines that fly to Tel Aviv and then applied to one of them. By his own account the plan existed before the job. The Dubai state-owned carrier hired him more than a year ago, CBS News reported. He is an Omani national. Reuters’ sources name him Hamam al-Hammami, and CBS News, citing several people familiar with the investigation, spells it Hamam al Hamami. Neither the UAE nor FlyDubai has named him publicly. Oman has not commented. He is in Emirati custody, no formal charges have been announced, and it is not known whether he has a lawyer. ## The target A third source briefed on the Emirati investigation told Reuters the aim was to crash the aircraft into Ben Gurion International Airport. NPR, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported the same intent and noted that the flight was due to land at mid-morning on a busy weekday. Euronews, summarising US and Israeli reports, said he meant to fly a normal approach and crash only at the last moment. It would not have been his first flight to Tel Aviv. The same Reuters source said he had flown the route earlier this year intending to hijack and crash that plane too, and then chose not to. Nobody knows why, though he is thought to have known someone on board. Israeli media, quoted by Euronews, said he had spent several months preparing and had used the earlier trip to gather information. One acquaintance in a cabin, if that source is right, was once enough to spare a whole aircraft. ## Wednesday, 30 September The jet was approaching Israel when the co-pilot attacked the captain with the crash axe, a light emergency tool kept in the cockpit for breaking through panels and jammed doors. On Saturday the UAE prosecutor general, Hamad Saif al-Shamsi, said the co-pilot had [attempted a terrorist attack](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/3/flydubai-co-pilot-stabbed-pilot-with-crash-axe-in-terrorist-attack-uae). It was the first time the Emiratis had [used that word](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-03/uae-says-flydubai-co-pilot-planned-terrorist-operation) about the flight, and rews reported it [at the time](https://rews.cc/a/flydubai-suspect-was-pulled-from-oman-air-flight-training-ov-e47b7f). The captain, Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, held off his attacker long enough to unlock the cockpit door. He later described this to India’s leader from a hospital bed in Saudi Arabia, where he was being treated for stab wounds. Israeli passengers and FlyDubai staff then overpowered the co-pilot. Accounts of who flew the plane after that differ. Reuters says a reserve FlyDubai pilot took over, and CBS says two off-duty pilots did. The aircraft landed in Tabuk, in north-western Saudi Arabia. The airline said 172 people were on board, most of them Israeli, according to NPR. Euronews put the figure above 180. All were flown on to Tel Aviv late that Wednesday. Saudi authorities detained the co-pilot and handed him to the UAE on Thursday. India has called its captain a hero. According to NPR, Flightradar24 said its data showed the plane dropping more than 14,000 feet in under 30 seconds at one point. ## The arithmetic of a state Two Israeli sources with direct knowledge told CBS News that Israel was ready to shoot the plane down, with more than 150 Israelis aboard. After the plunge, the Israeli Air Force tried to reach the cockpit and got no answer. A standing committee was called together, a command centre was set up, fighter jets were scrambled and Israeli airspace was closed. The jets were called back when the plane, about 400 miles out, turned toward Saudi Arabia and the Saudis sent up their own jets. Under the protocol, if the plane had come closer, Israeli fighters would have entered Jordanian airspace and looked into the cockpit and then the cabin to check for signs of panic. If it was judged hijacked, with radio silence and no demands, the defence minister and the prime minister would be put on a call. Only the prime minister could order a shoot-down. The sources said that losing the airliner would be preferable to many hundreds dying if a rogue plane hit the Azrieli towers, the airport or another “high-value target.” In that moment a government counts lives on both sides. Here, a captain with stab wounds and a crowd of passengers made sure the count never had to be finished. ## The loophole Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that pilots from countries without diplomatic relations with Israel, Oman among them, are not allowed to fly into the country. On Fox & Friends he blamed a “loophole.” Late on Sunday he announced a formal review of “foreign civil aviation into Israel.” Under a 2023 law, foreign airlines must send passenger and crew lists to Israel before every flight. Since the attack, the transportation ministry and the domestic and foreign security agencies have each said that vetting foreign crews was not their job, and NPR reported that they have traded accusations. Eytan Ben David, a former deputy head of aviation security at El Al, told CBS that the job falls mainly to the security branch inside the transportation ministry, and that the man’s passport alone should have stopped him. > It’s enough that you see that he is of Omani nationality to say, ‘Stop, he cannot fly to Israel because he is Omani, replace him with another pilot.’ Sources told CBS that he may hold dual citizenship. They said he was born outside Oman to an Omani father and a Syrian mother, and has lived most of his life abroad. According to the same sources, Oman Air took him off flying duties after Omani surveillance found him visiting radical websites. He was moved to a desk job, resigned around 2024 and went to Dubai, where FlyDubai hired him without checking with Oman’s government. Royal Air Maroc says he completed three months of theoretical training with it in 2025 before it rejected his application. He studied at RMIT University in Melbourne roughly a decade ago, and an Australian counter-terrorism unit is [examining those ties](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/4/police-investigating-flydubai-co-pilots-australia-ties). New Zealand police say they are looking into time he spent there. Netanyahu has said the man underwent radical Islamist indoctrination and was clearly suicidal, without saying where or when. President Trump alone among senior officials has suggested an Iranian link, “based on what I’m hearing.” Vice President JD Vance declined to address Iran but said: “We knew that guy was a problem — not United States intelligence, but if you look historically, that person should not have been flying an airline.” Israel’s early inquiry points to a lone attacker, according to CBS. Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Israel has asked the UAE to extend questioning to the crew. FlyDubai told CBS it could not answer questions while the investigation continues. Israel holds national elections in a few weeks, the first since 7 October 2023. Netanyahu is campaigning as the only man who can keep Israelis safe, and his opponents are calling the breach his failure. Analysts told NPR the attack is unlikely to change many votes. Ben David’s verdict on the flight was: “It’s a huge failure, and it’s a big miracle.” ## Sources - [Israeli officials say FlyDubai co-pilot planned attack before joining airline](https://cbc.ca/news/world/flydubai-copilot-attack-planned-9.7369232) — cbc.ca - [FlyDubai co-pilot planned to crash plane into airport, sources say](https://cbsnews.com/news/flydubai-co-pilot-planned-crash-into-israel-airport-security-lapses/) — cbsnews.com - [FlyDubai co-pilot planned to crash jet into Tel Aviv airport](https://euronews.com/2026/10/05/flydubai-co-pilot-planned-to-crash-aircraft-into-tel-aviv-airport) — euronews.com - [FlyDubai attacker intended to crash plane into Tel Aviv airport, investigation finds](https://npr.org/2026/10/05/nx-s1-5990802/midair-attack-flydubai) — npr.org - [Israel was prepared to shoot down FlyDubai plane after captain was attacked, sources say](https://cbsnews.com/news/israel-flydubai-plane-shoot-down-threat/) — cbsnews.com