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Arabia
Day 6: A Flydubai pilot planned to fly a plane into an Israeli airport
2026-10-05
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] The Flydubai pilot suspected of attempting to hijack a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight planned to fly the plane into Ben Gurion Airport, according to Amit Segal, a correspondent for Israel's Channel 12.
A good thing he was stopped.
"The Omani pilot
…Hamam al-Hammami, 29, with his complicated resumé as each employer noticed his extreme piety and fondness for the odder corners of the internet…
stated during interrogation that he planned for the plane to crash into Ben Gurion Airport... He planned... to fly the plane into the terminal building," the journalist wrote on his page on the social network X, without disclosing the specific sources of his information.

That is why the Omani attacked his colleague with a knife only in Jordan, near Israel, Segal added.

Flydubai Flight FZ1073, a Boeing 737 MAX, departed Dubai for Tel Aviv on the morning of September 30. Two and a half hours after takeoff, the aircraft began to rapidly lose altitude. The crew issued an emergency signal to the air traffic controller, and a few seconds later, another alert indicating a possible hijacking. The aircraft was over Jordan at the time. The plane then turned around and headed for Saudi Arabia.

As it turned out, during the flight, the co-pilot, an Omani, attacked the captain, attempting to kill him and steer the plane into the ground. One passenger speculated that the co-pilot (presumably a UAE national) was attempting suicide. While carrying out the attack, the pilot shouted a Muslim slogan. The captain suffered serious injuries to his arms and head.

The plane didn't crash because the pilots were on board, who were able to neutralize the attacker and land the aircraft in Saudi Arabia. There were 180 people on board, including 27 children. Most of the passengers were Israeli citizens. There were no Russians on board.

More from regnum.ru
The captain of the Flydubai flight revealed where his co-pilot went before the incident.

Flydubai captain Smit Machchhar
39, an Hindu Indian national from Mumbai who lives in Dubai as an Emirati citizen...
stated that shortly before the attack, the co-pilot stepped away to pray and was out of his sight for several minutes. This follows from a recording of the pilot's conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"While he was praying, I was looking forward out of respect, not back, and suddenly, after four or five minutes, I received a very strong blow to the head," the Prime Minister's Office quoted Machchhar as saying on social media.

According to the captain, he initially thought the impact was due to a serious aircraft malfunction. However, after several successive impacts, Machchhar realized he was being attacked by the co-pilot in the cockpit with him. After the initial impacts, Machchhar claims, he nearly lost his sight and was semi-conscious. The captain attempted to open the cockpit door, but the attacker blocked his reach.

Machchhar also reported that the crew tried to open the door from the outside using a code, but the co-pilot blocked it. From the cockpit floor, the captain heard shouts from the cabin and, according to him, realized the plane was descending. He eventually managed to reach the door, turn the handle, and open it.
Related:
Flydubai 10/04/2026 Day 5: UAE Attorney General's Office ruled Flydubai flight an attempted terrorist attack
Flydubai 10/04/2026 Benjamin Netanyahu tells NATALIE LISBONA: 'Britain under Burnham is like a rogue state - attacking Israel while appeasing an Islamist, leftist alliance'
Flydubai 10/03/2026 FlyDubai Day 4: Israel is searching for those behind the FlyDubai attack, Omani hijacker named

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