Who is the mystery co-pilot behind the Flydubai attack?

The pilot has been identified as Hamam al-Hammami, an Omani citizen, according to multiple reports.

A flydubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft is pictured on the tarmac after landing at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport in Lod on September 30, 2026 [File: AFP)

By Al Jazeera Staff, AFP and AP
Published On 3 Oct 20263 Oct 2026


A Flydubai co-pilot accused of attacking the captain of a flight bound for Israel has been identified as an Omani national previously barred from flying in his home country over concerns about alleged extremist views, according to media reports.

There has been no official confirmation of the pilot’s identity or his beliefs.
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The United Arab Emirates on Saturday described Wednesday’s incident on board Flight FZ1073 as an attempted “terrorist operation”, saying the co-pilot attacked Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, with an emergency axe and attempted to take control of the aircraft.

But investigators are still working to establish the motive and whether anyone else was connected to the attack, which has raised concerns about pilot vetting and aviation security.

Here is what we know:
What do we know about the accused pilot?

The co-pilot suspected of attacking the captain of the Dubai-Tel Aviv flight carrying 174 people has been identified as Hamam al-Hammami, an Omani national, three people with knowledge of the situation, including a Gulf diplomat and a Western diplomat, told AP news agency.

All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media. The Gulf diplomat said investigations are under way to establish whether he acted as a “lone wolf or had any connection with any extremist groups”.

US media outlet CNN, quoting a source and an Israeli official, reported that al-Hammami is an Omani citizen who was born in the UAE to a Syrian mother and spent several years in the Emirates.

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Sultan al-Jaber: the UAE oil boss steering COP28

COP28

By Maha El Dahan

November 24, 202311:44 AM EST

Updated 2 hours ago


Summary

• COP28 summit will be first global assessment of Paris Agreement
• Summit host UAE aims to increase its oil production capacity
• Oil and gas representatives to be present at Dubai talks
• Thunberg called Jaber's appointment 'completely ridiculous'
• Supporters say he is a realist

DUBAI, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Sultan al-Jaber, the United Arab Emirates oil chief executive and leader of COP28 climate talks, has a formidable reputation for earnestly pursuing results.

His position as leader of state energy giant ADNOC has alarmed environmental critics concerned over his commitment to maintaining a role for fossil fuels in the energy transition, but his supporters say he has an ability to get things done and straddle divides that will deliver climate action.

When marathon deliberations in Egypt’s picturesque city of Aswan in October struggled to reach an agreement on a fund to help countries recover from damage caused by climate change, Jaber leapt in.

In a virtual intervention, he told the 24-member U.N. committee debating the fund that billions of lives depended on getting a deal.

Jaber's message to the delegates made very clear he would not accept failure.

"You could say that he used the notion of the hard deadline to help bang heads," Avinash Persaud, negotiator for Barbados, who was a member of the technical committee and present at the meeting, told Reuters.

The stakes were high. Climate funding has caused bitter divisions between developed countries held largely responsible for global warming and poorer countries that are the most vulnerable to its consequences.

Another failure to agree on what is known as the "loss and damage" fund could derail discussions at COP28, which takes place from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12 in Dubai. After a year of extreme heat, droughts, wildfires and floods, the U.N. talks will be the first global assessment of progress since the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015.

The October negotiations were supposedly the last chance to reach agreement on the fund, but a fifth extraordinary gathering took place in Abu Dhabi in November that agreed to make the World Bank the fund's interim home and encourage all countries to contribute.

The UAE is among a handful of high per-capita income countries that are not obliged to contribute to U.N. climate funds, but face pressure from European states to do so.