The United Arab Emirates’ prosecutor general said on Saturday that the flydubai co-pilot who attacked his captain with a crash ax had attempted a “terrorist attack” on this week’s flight to Tel Aviv.
The finding by the prosecutor general, Hamad Saif al-Shamsi, carried by the state news agency WAM, was the first time the Emirates’ prosecutors had publicly called Wednesday’s episode aboard Flight FZ1073 terrorism. The Boeing 737 Max 8 carried 174 passengers, most of them Israelis, though officials cited by The Guardian put the total aboard at 182.
Mr. al-Shamsi said the co-pilot began executing his plan in the air, striking the captain inside the cockpit with the ax — a tool kept there for emergencies — and trying to take the flight controls. The jet dropped about 16,625 feet in just over 30 seconds over Saudi Arabia, according to flight-tracking data from Flightradar24, before passengers and crew subdued the attacker.
The captain, Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, was wounded in the stomach and head but managed to unlock the cockpit door, letting passengers and crew rush in. A reserve flydubai pilot traveling on the flight then took the controls and landed at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk, in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where the co-pilot was detained. Saudi Arabia transferred both pilots to the Emirates on Thursday.
Speaking from an Abu Dhabi hospital on Friday, in a video call released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, Captain Machchhar said he had been “severely injured” and could feel the plane going down. “I was acting for my own life, but at the same time, I knew I couldn’t let all of them die,” he said, adding that he told himself to “give just one last push” on the door. His uncle, Kishor Machchhar, told NBC News from Mumbai that the family hoped for his discharge in two weeks.
Emirati authorities have not officially named the suspect. A source with direct knowledge of the matter identified him to Reuters as Hammam al-Hammami, an Omani national, a name an Israeli official and Saudi state media also confirmed to CNN, while NBC News said it could not verify it independently. Born in the Emirates to an Omani father and a Syrian mother, Mr. al-Hammami had worked for flydubai only eight months, an Israeli official told CNN.
Two sources familiar with the matter told CNN that Mr. al-Hammami had been removed from flight training at Oman Air, Oman’s national carrier, over concerns about his extremist views and moved to another role. The Wall Street Journal first reported Oman’s flying ban. A LinkedIn profile in his name, since deleted, showed seven years at Oman Air ending in February 2025 and a later stint at Royal Air Maroc. Neither airline responded to requests for comment.
Two posts appeared on the LinkedIn page about nine hours after the attack, and it is unclear who published them. One, a cockpit video geolocated by CNN to Dubai International Airport, zoomed in on Israeli airliners and ended with a photo of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the former Al Qaeda leader. A CNN analysis of nearly 3,000 deleted tweets in his name found deeply religious and misogynistic posts, including complaints about mixed-gender workplaces, but nothing supporting the Palestinians or criticizing Israel.
How Mr. al-Hammami reached the cockpit is a central question. Israel says it has agreements with foreign carriers to bar pilots from countries without diplomatic ties to Israel, and Oman does not recognize Israel. Several Israeli agencies, among them Shin Bet, are investigating how he joined the crew.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that the attacker “had undergone Islamist radicalization” and “came to crash the plane, along with its passengers,” and that whoever sent him “will pay a very heavy price.” President Trump said Thursday that Iran would be “hit very hard” if it was behind the attack. There are no indications that Iran directed or was involved in the attack, a senior U.S. official briefed on the Israeli investigation told NBC News.
The Emirates is leading the investigation and, because the aircraft is registered there, its law applies aboard its planes even outside its territory, WAM reported. Israeli investigators are expected to take part and to question the suspect in the Emirates. Flydubai halted its Israel route after the incident, stranding some Israelis in Dubai until the first repatriation flight, operated by the Israeli carrier Arkia, reached Ben Gurion Airport on Friday night. Mr. al-Shamsi said the final results would be announced when the necessary procedures were complete.