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Hamam al-Hammami, the copilot accused of trying to hijack and crash a flydubai aircraft bound for Israel, stated during interrogation that he had researched which airlines operate routes to Tel Aviv and consequently chose flydubai, an Israeli source told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. "I tried to get hired by all the airlines. I planned the operation even before I was accepted by the company," the pilot said during interrogation. "The dream was to crash into Ben-Gurion Airport," Hammami added. In recent months, Hammami had been frequenting Ben-Gurion Airport in the course of his work as a pilot. One of...

Al-Hammami asked Indian pilot he wants to pray, as the captain was gracious, Al-Hammami hit him with a crash axe. link His 9/11-style plan: Kill captain, fly normally – then crash at Ben Gurion. link: (massacring hundreds or more). Sharia fanatic. Celebrated beating women, ranted against Jews.link Al Qaeda fan.link MSM has been "struggling" to find "motive."

The flydubai hijacker was previously banned from flying by Omani authorities over concerns regarding his radical ideological views, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Friday. The report cited several people familiar with the matter, who told the WSJ that the pilot, identified by the sources as Omani national Hamam al-Hammami, was hired by UAE-based carrier flydubai despite the concerns, though it is unclear whether the airline knew about the issue. It is further unclear exactly what sort of radicalism Omani authorities cited as their reason for grounding the pilot, who stabbed Capt. Smit Machchhar in a failed attempt...

Australian aviation expert Byron Bailey cut off during an interview on News24 after pointing out a religious motive behind the Flydubai attack. Israel National News. Published: Oct 2, 2026, 6:47 PM (GMT+3) Captain Byron Bailey, an Australian aviation expert, was interviewed on local channel News24 about the attempted terror attack on the Flydubai flight which was making its way to Tel Aviv. However, when Bailey explained that he was not surprised by the incident and explained that the core of the issue is the fact that Islam calls for the death of all Jews, the interviewer abruptly cut him off....

President Donald Trump warned on Thursday that Iran would face a “very hard” response if investigators determine that Tehran was behind the apparent attempt to crash an Israel-bound flydubai flight. Asked by a reporter at the White House whether he had been briefed on possible Iranian links to the Omani co-pilot who stabbed the captain of Flight FZ1073, Trump said, “I would say the answer, based on what I’m hearing, is yes, but we’re working on it right now.”

A senior Emirati official on Friday described the attack aboard flydubai Flight FZ1073 as a “dangerous terrorist act” that could have ended in catastrophe. Dr. Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, made the comments in a post on X, marking the first public characterization of the incident as terrorism by a senior Emirati official. “The Indian flydubai pilot Smit Machchhar deserves every appreciation,” Gargash wrote. “In confronting a dangerous terrorist act and a potential catastrophe, he embodied the meaning of courage and responsibility. His professionalism and moral sense in the darkest...

Nina Manes was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv with her family when she asked her mother Tali to take her to the toilet near the front of the Boeing 737 MAX 8. As they approached, Tali heard shouting and banging coming from behind the cockpit door and immediately realised something was wrong. She alerted a flight attendant before the cockpit door opened and revealed Captain Smit Machchhar covered in blood as he fought with his co-pilot. Tali began screaming for help, shouting: “He’s stabbing the pilot, he’s stabbing the pilot, come help!” Her husband Tzvika heard the screams, collected...

The recent terrifying crisis aboard Flydubai Flight FZ 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv serves as a stark warning to the global security community: Commercial aviation remains a prime target, and the nature of the threat is rapidly shifting. During the flight, a violent struggle erupted inside the cockpit, sending the aircraft into a sudden, steep descent from 17,000 feet and triggering emergency distress codes. A horrific disaster was averted only because of the immediate, decisive intervention of the remaining crew and vigilant passengers on board, who managed to overpower the individual and stabilize the aircraft before an emergency diversion...

A major incident was averted on Wednesday when a pilot on a Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv was stabbed by his co-pilot, triggering a rapid descent and an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. Passengers and crew members intervened and restrained the accused pilot, while other pilots on board helped land the aircraft safely. Israeli officials have described the incident as an apparent attempt to crash the plane and kill those on board. The incident has nevertheless raised questions about a possible Iran connection, given the heightened tensions between Israel and Iran and concerns over potential attacks against Israelis. Here's what...

UAE is in serious trouble. Israel is now suspecting the direct involvement of certain UAE officials in the attempted hijacking of FlyDubai Flight FZ1073. Without several deliberate security violations, the hijacking would have been impossible. To make matters even more suspicious, UAE and Saudi officials still refuse to release the name of the suicidal Omani pilot. The pilot went through 2 body scanners, a metal detector and an X-ray scanner with a knife. No alarm went off during the screening. Another suspicion is that an influential airport official may have already placed the weapon inside the cockpit. Things get even...

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI began examining Ellaboudy after receiving information that he had purchased precursor chemicals, components and other materials associated with improvised explosive devices. Investigators also found purchases of parts used to construct drones and remotely operated aerial systems. The complaint alleges that Ellaboudy took sick leave in December 2024 after claiming exposure to highly concentrated nitric acid, a chemical that can be used in explosive materials. In September 2025, prosecutors say, he used an official passport issued during earlier employment with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to travel from Washington state to...

The Omani copilot who stabbed the pilot on the flydubai flight yesterday discussed killing Jews on social media, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.The official adds that the attacker asked the Emirati crew members to kill him, citing conversations with passengers on the flight. “This was a person who was willing to commit suicide,” says the official. “His social media accounts [say] clearly that he has been radicalized into jihadist ideology. He talks about killing Jews.”“We can’t say for sure until the investigation’s over,” the official continues, “but it certainly seems like he was a suicide actor who...

"He was going to down that plane." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו breaks down the harrowing details of the Flydubai terrorist attempt: • The copilot had undergone radical Islamist indoctrination. • He abandoned his seat to jam the instruments and force the plane down. • An Israeli hero plumber broke into the cockpit and yanked him away. • Crew restrained him using headset cords before plastic ties were secured. • While subdued, the attacker shouted "Kill me, kill me". Investigations are ongoing, but early indications point directly to a prevented suicidal terror attack, the prime minister says.

The flydubai staffer accused of trying to hijack a plane carrying 174 people to Israel by stabbing the lead pilot was known as a religious extremist who refused to shake hands with women, according to a colleague. The co-pilot responsible for what Israel’s defense minister called “a jihadist terrorist attack” Wednesday has not been named publicly, but was an Omani national who had worked for the airline for less than a year. He was “someone characterized by very strange behavior, especially around religious observances that were out of step with his surroundings,” a fellow pilot told Israel’s Channel 16 journalist...

The new season of Fauda, released on September 8 on Netflix, is a hit around the world, as the series tends to be – but the big news is that, even as anti-Israel sentiment mounts around the world, it is the number one show in Lebanon, according to tracking sites such as FlixPatrol. Not only is it the top show in Lebanon, which has been in a state of war with Israel since 1948, but it is or has been in the top 10 in nine other Arab countries that have different relationships with Israel. At the time of writing,...

Iran announced Monday it will establish a new “restricted zone” near the Strait of Hormuz within the coming days — as the flailing nation desperately tries to expand its control over the critical chokepoint. The exclusion zone will span from where the US blockade of Iran begins to other areas of the Gulf, Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on Sunday in an interview with state TV. Rezaei said that any ship that sails into the restricted zone will be placed on a sanctions list. “Any ship that enters this area with the intention of...

US special forces spent four months conducting a secret mine-clearing mission in the Strait of Hormuz in an attempt to open up the waterway, the Financial Times reported Sunday. Iran has said it placed mines in international and Omani waters following the outbreak of the war. The International Maritime Organization estimated in June that roughly 80 mines had been deployed along important shipping routes. The covert operation was carried out amid ongoing exchanges of strikes between the US and Iran in and around the Strait, according to people familiar with the mission. Navy SEAL divers worked with unmanned vessels, robots,...

The United States military destroyed three Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps crude oil tankers in the Persian Gulf Saturday – after Iran launched ballistic missiles at two US Navy vessels. Footage shows large tankers blown up in flames, as a thick plume of black smoke rise off the sea. A US military aircraft crew can be heard over radio warning an oil tanker near Kharg Island, before unleashing a barrage of missiles that lit the vessel in flames. “I’m preparing to fire. …You have three minutes to clear the crew,” the US is heard in a video filmed aboard a nearby...

WASHINGTON — Oman has quietly rejected Iran’s request to jointly charge service fees on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, The Post has learned — averting a clash with President Trump, who has threatened to rain down bombs on the US ally. A high-ranking regional official said that Muscat declined to consent to charging fees — even on a voluntary basis — for environmental and security services, contrary to a statement last week from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The terms of a proposed revenue-sharing deal had not been finalized, even by Tehran, a US official told The Post...

WASHINGTON — A purported deal between Iran and Oman to control the Strait of Hormuz and share revenue from fees is “not even close to done” and would be meaningless so long as President Trump’s blockade of Iran remains in effect, a US official told The Post. A spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed Wednesday that the two nations had agreed to terms to control the shipping bottleneck — but The Post’s source said that ill-defined terms are still believed to lack full approval from Iran’s leadership. “The deals don’t mean anything unless we approve it. It...