Investigators in the United Arab Emirates and Israel are working to establish the motive behind an alleged attempted hijacking aboard a FlyDubai flight last week, after a co-pilot is accused of stabbing the captain and trying to seize the controls of an aircraft carrying more than 170 people.

The incident unfolded on September 30 aboard Flight FZ1073, which had departed Dubai for Tel Aviv with around 174 passengers and crew on board. According to officials, co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami, an Omani national born in the UAE to a Syrian mother, attacked Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, with the cockpit’s emergency crash axe while the plane was cruising at roughly 34,000 feet. The aircraft reportedly dropped more than 17,000 feet in about two minutes before passengers and off-duty crew members managed to overpower the attacker. Two off-duty pilots who happened to be aboard then took over the controls and diverted the plane to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, where it landed safely. The captain suffered stab wounds but is expected to recover, and no passengers were seriously hurt.

UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi said al-Hammami “attempted to take control of the aircraft’s controls” after attacking the captain, and authorities in Abu Dhabi, who are leading the investigation, have classified the incident as a “terrorist operation.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went further in characterizing the co-pilot’s intentions, saying “the attacker underwent Islamist radicalization” and that “he came to crash the plane with its passengers.” Israeli investigators have said they believe al-Hammami acted alone, though UAE officials say they are still working to confirm whether he had any links to extremist networks.

Reporting on al-Hammami’s background has raised questions about aviation industry vetting. He had previously spent roughly seven years at Oman Air, until February 2025, and also worked for Morocco’s Royal Air Maroc. Omani authorities reportedly had barred him from flying over concerns about extremist views after surveillance allegedly found he had visited radical websites, prompting a transfer to desk duties before he resigned. He later relocated to Dubai, where FlyDubai hired him without apparently cross-checking with Omani aviation authorities.

Al-Hammami was transferred from Saudi Arabia to the UAE this past week, where he is being questioned jointly by Israeli, Emirati and Saudi officials. FlyDubai has suspended its flights to Israel in the aftermath of the incident, and the case has reignited scrutiny of how airlines screen and monitor cockpit crew, particularly on routes connecting the Gulf to Israel amid the region’s continuing tensions.

The investigation continues, with authorities across three countries working to piece together a fuller picture of how a commercial co-pilot came to be in the cockpit despite an earlier red flag raised by a previous employer, and what, if anything, might have prevented the attack.

Sources: CBS News, Al Jazeera