---
title: "Israeli Investigators Say FlyDubai Hijacking Suspect Probably Acted Alone"
description: "The co-pilot, identified as Hamam al Hamami, had been flagged years earlier in Oman for visiting radical websites, sources said"
author: "rews desk"
published: 2026-10-04T11:08:35Z
modified: 2026-10-04T14:03:56Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/israeli-investigators-say-flydubai-hijacking-suspect-probabl-6bcfa0
language: en
tags: ["security", "war", "aviation", "iran", "terrorism", "mideast", "us"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Israeli Investigators Say FlyDubai Hijacking Suspect Probably Acted Alone

*The co-pilot, identified as Hamam al Hamami, had been flagged years earlier in Oman for visiting radical websites, sources said*

By rews desk · October 4, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/israeli-investigators-say-flydubai-hijacking-suspect-probabl-6bcfa0

## In brief

- Israeli investigators believe the FlyDubai co-pilot who allegedly stabbed his captain and tried to crash the plane acted alone, sources told CBS News
- The suspect, identified as Omani citizen Hamam al Hamami, is being interrogated in the UAE after the jet landed in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
- Oman Air pulled him from pilot training over radical websites; FlyDubai hired him later without checking with Oman, the sources said
- Trump suggested an Iran link while Netanyahu called it a suicide attempt and said the pilot was shoutin “kill me” when subdued

Israeli investigators believe the co-pilot accused of stabbing the captain of a FlyDubai flight and trying to bring the plane down on Wednesday most likely acted alone, people familiar with the early investigation said.

The inquiry is still in full swing and every avenue remains open, the people told CBS News. The suspect, an Omani citizen, is being held in the United Arab Emirates, where interrogators questioned him for a second round after Saudi authorities did the first when the Boeing made its emergency landing in Tabuk. Israel has sent its own representatives to join the questioning.

The flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv was approaching Israel when the co-pilot allegedly stabbed the captain and tried to crash the aircraft, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, passengers and the captain himself have said. The captain fought the co-pilot off long enough to unlock the cockpit door. Israeli passengers and FlyDubai crew members then subdued him, and two off-duty pilots aboard took the controls and landed in Saudi Arabia.

The co-pilot has not been publicly named. Multiple sources familiar with the investigation identified him to CBS News as Hamam al Hamami. The sources said he was not born in Oman and spent most of his life outside the country; his mother is Syrian and his father Omani. The Omani government has not confirmed his nationality. The sources said dual citizenship could explain how he was cleared to fly to Israel.

Years before the attack, Oman Air took al Hamami out of new-pilot training after Omani government surveillance found him visiting radical websites, the sources said. The airline moved him to an office job, and he resigned around 2024. At one point he posted a video of El Al planes in Dubai that ended with an image of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Al Qaeda leader killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2022. FlyDubai later hired him in Dubai without vetting him with the Omani government, the sources said.

The lone-wolf finding sits uneasily beside the White House’s first theory. President Trump suggested on Thursday that the co-pilot might be tied to Iran. “We’re working on it right now. They’re being very open with us. I would say the answer, based on what I’m hearing, is yes. But we’re working on it right now,” Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Netanyahu, in a CBS News interview aired Wednesday, said the motive remained unknown. “I don’t think it was a hijacking,” he told the anchor Tony Dokoupil. “I think it looks like a suicide attempt.” On Fox News the next day, he said questioning had established that the co-pilot “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination,” citing personal information he did not detail, and that the man was “suicidal.” After passengers and crew members pinned him down, Mr. Netanyahu said, he shouted: “Kill me, kill me!”