A pilot has been identified after he allegedly attacked his captain in the cockpit of a mid-air FlyDubai flight bound for Israel.

Omani citizen Hamam al-Hammam was named by two sources and an Israeli official, with alleged links to extremism now emerging.

Without naming the suspect, the United Arab Emirates attorney-general said the co-pilot on the flight attacked his colleague with an axe then tried to seize control of the plane in an attempted “terrorist act.”

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Crash axes are required on most passenger planes.

Screams rang out through the cabin of flight FZ1073 when the captain was stabbed, sending the Boeing 737 Max 8 plunging more than 4000 metres in less than 30 seconds.

There were about 182 people on the plane, many Israeli, including parents with young children, and Australian passengers.

Omani national Hammam Al-Hammami has been identified as the co-pilot who allegedly attacked his captain with a crash axe while the plane was in flight. Credit: 7NEWS

Al-Hammam was born in the United Arab Emirates to an Omani father and Syrian mother and has spent several years of his life in the UAE, one source said.

He also reported studied at a university in Victoria, and the Australian Federal Police has confirmed it is probing any links.

“The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team (VIC JCTT), comprising the AFP, Victoria Police and ASIO, can confirm it is investigating the man’s links to Australia,” AFP said.

Al-Hammam was removed from a previous job at Oman’s national airline last year following concerns about his extremist views, two sources familiar with the matter said.

The captain was allegedly attacked with a crash axe, which are standard on most passenger planes. Credit: 7NEWS

A LinkedIn profile bearing the name Hamam al-Hammami said he worked at Oman Air for seven years, leaving in February 2025, before joining the Moroccan airline Royal Air Maroc in June 2025 and departing in January 2026.

The page made no mention of FlyDubai. One of the sources confirmed that the profile belongs to the FlyDubai pilot in Wednesday’s incident. The profile has since been deleted and CNN has reached out to LinkedIn for comment.

The second source, a diplomat from the region, told CNN the suspect was removed from flight training with Oman Air because of the concerns over his radical views and was given another role at Oman’s national airline.

Captain Smit Machchhar is recovering after he was stabbed on the flight. Credit: Israel's Foreign Ministry via AP

On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the suspect was believed to have undergone “Islamist radical indoctrination.”

The Israeli official told CNN that al-Hammami had worked for FlyDubai for only eight months. A fourth source said the alleged assailant had previously worked for Royal Air Maroc.

In a statement to AP, Air Maroc said the suspect trained with the airline for three months in 2025 as part of the pre-employment process but he was not selected.

The revelations will raise concerns about the importance of background checks in aviation hiring. CNN has reached out to Oman Air and the Dubai government’s media office for comment.

FlyDubai said it could not provide comment while the incident remained under investigation.

Threatening mutilation and death

Only two posts were made to the LinkedIn profile, and both were published in quick succession on Wednesday, about nine hours after the incident.

It is unclear who published the posts or whether they were scheduled in advance.

The first post featured a series of clips filmed in the cockpit of a Boeing 737 Max aircraft. The aircraft that diverted to Saudi Arabia in Wednesday’s incident was a Flydubai 737 Max 8.

In one clip, which CNN geolocated to Dubai International Airport, the person filming zooms in on a plane that belongs to the Israeli airline El Al.

In the video, the cockpit screen showed the flight number – OMA624 – and date, October 11, 2023. The flight number corresponds to a flight that typically travels from Dubai to Muscat. The date matches the period of time he worked at Oman Air.

In other clips in the video, more planes from El Al, as well as one from Arkia, another Israeli airline, are shown.

The video ends with a photo of Ayman al-Zawahiri, who led al Qaeda after the death of Osama Bin Laden, and a photo of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who killed nine people, including seven American CIA officers and contractors, in a 2009 suicide bombing in Afghanistan, and was loyal to al Qaeda.

The second post features an AI-generated image depicting Islam’s three holiest sites – in Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem – linked by a continuous glowing trail. A defiant poem recited in the background speaks of rejecting humiliation, not fearing death and defending one’s dignity.

Al-Hammami’s LinkedIn page said he studied at Buckinghamshire New University in England. A source at the university confirmed to CNN that a man by that name had completed a three-year distance learning course, graduating with a degree in aviation management in 2023. The source added that Al-Hammami had not undertaken any pilot training as part of his course.

The same two videos were posted around the same time on an Instagram account bearing the same name and pictures, before that account was also deleted. CNN has reached out to Meta for comment.

‘Ruined’ women

A CNN analysis of al-Hammami’s deleted Twitter account shows him as deeply religious and misogynistic.

In deleted posts, al-Hammami discussed the difficulties his mother faced in finding him a prospective wife who would accept his conditions that she wear a niqab, a face covering, and stop working after marriage.

“They all refused. Then my mother told them, ‘My son is a pilot,’ and they all suddenly agreed,” the post from February 2022 said.

A deleted Twitter account matching the pilot’s made many posts with a misogynistic sentiment. Credit: CNN

The posts also railed against mixed-gender workplaces, saying they had a corrupting effect on women.

“How many respectable, religious girls have been ruined in mixed-gender work environments and manipulated?” a post from January 2022 said.

The nearly 3000 deleted tweets, published between 2021 and 2022, were analysed and sorted using an AI-powered semantic search model.

Investigating terror links

Meanwhile, there is growing confusion in Israel over how a citizen of Oman, a country which does not recognise Israel, was permitted to serve as a pilot on a flight to Tel Aviv, despite Israel’s stringent aviation security measures.

Israel’s Tax Authority confirmed the names of all passengers and crew were in the hands of Israeli authorities before the flight had taken off, but it said questions about the vetting of crew members should be referred to the Transportation Ministry.

Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, akin to the FBI, also referred CNN to the Transportation Ministry, which it said is “responsible for all security matters concerning foreign airlines.”

But in a late evening briefing with reporters on Saturday, a Transportation Ministry spokesperson said its protocols do not include checking the names of flight crew members.

“The Ministry of Transport’s procedures do not address the threat from a pilot,” the spokesperson said.