CAIRO -- The co-pilot accused of attacking the captain on an Israel-bound flight with an axe and trying to seize the controls was an Omani national who’d been barred from flying on his country’s airline because of concerns about extremist views, officials said Saturday. The co-pilot has been identified as Hamam al-Hammami, according to three people with knowledge of the situation, including a Gulf and Western diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The United Arab Emirates, which is leading the investigation, said the co-pilot attacked with the cockpit’s crash axe and tried to take control of the sharply plummeting plane in a “terrorist attack” Wednesday. His actions nearly crashed the flight with 182 people on board before passengers and others rushed in and subdued him. The new details raised questions about how thoroughly FlyDubai vets potential employees, and how the co-pilot’s presence on a flight filled with Israeli passengers got past Israel’s strict security protocols. Israel’s has said it has agreements with foreign carriers to keep pilots of nations without diplomatic ties from flying there. Israel and Oman don’t have formal diplomatic relations. The UAE government has earned a reputation for effective measures against extremist activities but has bristled in the past over criticism of security lapses. The incident occurred at a sensitive time for Israel, a week before the anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza. It also came weeks before a highly contentious election in which security, and Oct. 7 security failures, have been central issues. FlyDubai hired the co-pilot after Oman Air barred him Separately, a regional official and a person familiar with the matter said the co-pilot had been barred from flying by Oman over concerns he had adopted extremist views. The official said he was moved to an administrative job at Oman Air. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation. They gave no details about the alleged extremist views. The co-pilot was later hired by UAE-based airline FlyDubai, the person said. It was not immediately clear to what extent the co-pilot was vetted. The Gulf diplomat said he had undergone standard security checks before being hired, but it appears that the checks focused on whether he had been convicted on criminal charges and didn’t go deeper into examining his background for potential signs of radicalization. The regional official also said security agencies from four regional countries were working to establish the co-pilot’s motives, aided by the United States and other Western governments. The Gulf diplomat said the investigation, which hasn’t concluded, hasn’t found any connections with militant groups, suggesting that the co-pilot acted on his own. The regional official said the co-pilot was born in the UAE and his mother is Syrian. He obtained Omani nationality from his father, also an Omani national. The regional official also said the co-pilot had traveled to Syria, with no details. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said the co-pilot had undergone “Islamist radicalization,” but provided no evidence. There was no immediate comment Saturday from Israel’s government. A social media account was deleted the day of the flight A FlyDubai spokesperson said in an email that the airline could not comment beyond its official statements and acknowledged “there are many questions at this stage.” There was no immediate comment from Oman Air, and Oman’s government has said nothing publicly in response to repeated questions since the incident. In a statement to the AP, Royal Air Maroc, Morocco’s national carrier, said the co-pilot “completed a three-month theoretical training period with the airline in 2025, as part of the pre-employment process. At the end of this training period, his application was not selected for employment.” There were no details. Keith Coles, a spokesperson for Buckinghamshire New University in England, told the AP that al-Hammami previously completed a distance-learning course in aviation management there but “did not undertake any pilot training.” There were no details on the timing. Little else was immediately known about the co-pilot’s background. His Instagram account was active until the day of the flight and then deleted. Philip Baum, a visiting professor of aviation security at Coventry University in England who wrote a book about aircraft hijackings and bombings, said background check systems differ from country to country and there are limits on what types of information can be shared. “In terms of aviation security itself, obviously we want to have as robust background checks as possible. But there are huge limitations on doing background checks in any case, especially in cross-border checks,” he said. Captain and passengers have described drama on board Airlines are generally required to carry crash axes in the cockpit that could be used in an emergency to break open a window to escape or break open a panel to access a fire. The captain, who was badly wounded in the axe attack, has said he used his remaining energy while being attacked to unlock the cockpit door, allowing people who had noticed alarmingly unusual sounds to come in, tackle the co-pilot and stabilize the flight while passengers screamed. In a phone call with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, the flight’s captain, Smit Machchhar, said that before the attack, the co-pilot wanted to pray, and that he turned away out of respect. He said he felt a blow to the back of his head a few minutes later, and then the blows kept coming. Netanyahu told Machchhar that he was amazed at his courage and his ability to stay cool under impossible conditions. “You saved so many souls. ... You saved the spirit of the world,” he said. The plane made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after a descent so extreme that part of the rudder was torn away, and aviation experts have marveled that it didn’t crash. FlyDubai has said crew traveling on the plane helped to stabilize the plane and land. They have not yet been publicly identified. The captain and co-pilot were later taken to the UAE. The passengers, most of them Israeli, flew home later Wednesday on a separate plane, to cheers. Samy Magdy, Sam Mednick and Cara Anna, The Associated Press Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, and Anna from Jerusalem. AP Washington bureau chief Anna Johnson in Washington, aviation writer Josh Funk and Sam Metz in Jerusalem contributed.
