Officials from the United Arab Emirates have claimed that the alleged Omani Flydubai hijacker pilot began to drift towards "extremism and terrorism" while studying in Australia.
Hamam al-Hammami, 29, has been accused of being the pilot who allegedly attempted to crash a plane destined for Israel in a terror plot similar to 9/11. Prosecutors in the UAE said on Friday that the co-pilot, who allegedly attempted to seize control of the jet from Dubai, was planning to launch a "suicide attack" targeting a passenger terminal at Israel's international airport.
Al-Hammami has been accused of attacking pilot Smit Machchhar with an axe before crew and passengers intervened. The co-pilot is in Emirati custody, and UAE Attorney-General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi said interrogations revealed the 29-year-old was inspired by al-Qaeda's 2001 9/11 attacks on the US.
Extremism Emerged in Australia
Al-Shamsi also revealed that the pilot, who studied at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology for two years, had drifted "towards extremism and terrorism" while in Australia. According to the Emirati state news agency WAM, the Attorney General said: "The findings indicated that signs of his drift towards extremism and terrorism first emerged in 2017, while he was studying in Australia."
"During that period, he was influenced by takfiri [radical] ideology through reading extremist literature and following online content glorifying terrorist organisations and suicide attacks."
The 29-year-old reportedly told investigators that he had "prepared himself both psychologically and physically to carry out the plot by intensifying his exposure to material promoting terrorism and training in boxing under a private coach", the news agency reported. The pilot also reportedly told Emirati officials that he "had acted alone".
International Investigations
Australian security agencies confirmed they are looking into the man's links to the country. The 29-year-old was reportedly issued a student visa for Australia in 2014 and studied at RMIT between 2015-17 but left before completing his engineering degree, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Buckinghamshire New University, in the UK, also confirmed al-Hammami had completed a distance-learning course in aviation management. Police in New Zealand also said they had launched an investigation after it was confirmed the 29-year-old underwent flight training around a year after he left Australia.
The 29-year-old pilot had worked for several airlines before joining Flydubai, a state-owned low-cost airline, in January 2026, the UAE Attorney General said. Al-Shamsi added that the pilot had "met the professional and security employment requirements" at Flydubai "without any indications appearing during those procedures that reveal his extremist tendencies or his intention to carry out a terrorist plot".
The flight from Dubai to Ben-Gurion International Airport had been carrying 170 passengers and crew when it plunged 16,000 feet in just 30 seconds during the incident on September 30. The plane landed safely in Saudi Arabia before the suspect was sent to the UAE on Thursday.
