Flydubai co-pilot identified as Omani national as investigation into alleged attack continues: The details

Report by Toni Mrad, English adaptation by Mariella Succar

The man accused of stabbing the captain of a Flydubai flight traveling from Dubai to Israel on Wednesday has been identified as 29-year-old Omani national Hammam al-Hammami.

Al-Hammami was born in the United Arab Emirates to an Omani father and a Syrian mother and spent his life in the UAE.

CNN reviewed a LinkedIn account under his name that said he worked for Oman Air for seven years before leaving the airline in February 2025. 

According to the account, he joined Royal Air Maroc in June 2025 and left in January 2026. The profile did not list any employment with Flydubai.
The LinkedIn account also featured a video containing an image of Ayman al-Zawahiri, who led al-Qaida after the death of Osama bin Laden. LinkedIn later removed the co-pilot’s account.

According to available information, al-Hammami had previously been barred from flying over concerns that he had adopted extremist ideological views. Despite the ban, he was later hired by Flydubai. 

It remains unclear whether Oman shared those concerns with the UAE.
Investigations are continuing to determine the full circumstances surrounding the incident.

According to UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi, the co-pilot carried out what he described as a terrorist attack. Al-Shamsi said the co-pilot attacked the captain inside the cockpit with an emergency ax and attempted to take control of the aircraft.

The additional information that has emerged has raised several questions, including whether countries typically notify one another when a pilot has been barred from flying.

There is not necessarily an automatic exchange of such information, as there is no unified international system requiring every warning concerning a pilot to be automatically shared with all countries and airlines.

Other questions remain unanswered, including how al-Hammami, an Omani national, was permitted to operate a flight to Israel despite the absence of diplomatic relations between Oman and Israel.

As more details emerge and authorities examine a possible motive linked to extremist ideology, another question is how and where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could respond to the incident.