The Flydubai co-pilot accused of attempting to hijack a plane called for violence against women while studying in the UK, archived social media posts show.
Archived posts reveal violent remarks
Hamam al-Hammami, 29, allegedly slashed Capt Smit Machchhar during the Wednesday flight from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Tel Aviv, Israel. Al-Hammami, who is now being held in Abu Dhabi, said in archived social media posts seen by Metro that women should be 'stomped on' in 2022.
The posts, first reported by The Telegraph, were made by an X account bearing al-Hammami's name, '@PilotHamam'. The account said he is a 'civilian pilot' living in Muscat, the capital of Oman. According to archived posts, an X user said her husband discovered she had been texting a man she was once 'in love' with. @PilotHamam replied: 'I'd stomp on your head, wipe the floor with you, make you an example to others and then divorce you :).'
In another reply to a post about striking a woman, he said: 'He gave her a pre-emptive slap so she would redefine her boundaries, just as Russia slapped Ukraine to adjust its borders :).' He added later in the exchange that if she 'so much as breathed' he would 'stomp her head'.
Other offensive posts and profile details
Among the other posts Metro saw, the user also said he created dating profiles to get Saudi women to send 'pictures' of themselves. 'I asked women to send me nudes and they did it. Cheap whores!' he added. The X account also referred to women from the Gulf as 'stupid', according to the posts saved by the Wayback Machine. The al-Hammami account also called a man a 'simp' – misogynist slang for a man giving women attention – who expressed sympathy to a woman. He also made homophobic remarks, such as calling being gay an 'injustice' and 'deviant behaviour'.
Al-Hammami was studying for a distance-learning degree in aviation management at Buckinghamshire New University at the time of the posts, the university told Metro. A spokesperson said: 'Our thoughts are with the injured pilot, crew and passengers involved in this incident.' 'He did not undertake any pilot training at the university,' they added. When trying to access al-Hammami's X account today, it displays the error message: 'This account doesn't exist.' A since-deleted LinkedIn profile for al-Hammami also said that he studied at Buckinghamshire New University. It did not say he worked at Flydubai, the Emirati government-owned low-cost airline.
Attack details and aftermath
After the failed attack, two posts appeared on the profile, CNN reported. One depicted a photograph of Ayman al-Zawahiri, a jihadist who led the Islamist militant group Al Qaeda after Osama bin Laden's death. More than 170 passengers, mostly Israelis, were on FlyDubai Flight 1073 when its co-pilot attacked Machchhar. He did so using a crash axe, which is stored in the cockpits of planes for emergencies, Hamad Saif Al-Shamsi, the Emirati attorney general, said in a statement shared by state media.
'The co-pilot initiated the execution of his plot during the flight, assaulting the pilot inside the cockpit using an emergency crash axe and attempting to take control of the aircraft's flight controls,' he added. This caused the plane to plummet thousands of feet, prompting a handful of passengers to storm the cabin and subdue the attacker. Crew squawked several emergency distress signals and the plane was diverted to Tabuk Airport, according to tracker Flightradar24. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the incident was a result of 'Islamist radicalisation'.
