The pilot accused of trying to hijack a Flydubai passenger plane ‘dreamed’ of crashing it into Tel Aviv’s main airport, sources say.
Hamam al-Hammami, 29, attacked captain Smit Machchhar using the on board crash axe as he tried to take over the controls in the terrifying hijacking attempt on Wednesday.
Sources in Israel have now said that al-Hammami had plotted his actions before he was ever given a job with Flydubai – and that he had tried to get a job with several other airlines.
According to the Jerusalem Post, a security source said ‘the dream was to crash into Ben-Gurion Airport.’
They believe he travelled there multiple times before the attempted hijacking.
He went there in July to gather intelligence and then later that month tried to carry out his plot on a different plane, but aborted when he realised that a friend was on board.
Security sources also believe he considered crashing the plane into a tower block near Israel’s military HQ.
Yesterday it emerged that he had called for violence against women while studying aviation at a British university.
Al-Hammani said women should be ‘stomped on’ and appeared to praise Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while studying at Buckinghamshire New University (BNU).
He took part in a course remotely from Muscat, Oman according to the Telegraph. The university said it would be conducting a review of his time studying there after the shocking social media posts emerged.
A Twitter account strongly linked to Hammami with the name “Pilot Hamam al-Hammami” and handle @PilotHamam endorsed violence against women and severe punishments justified by reference to Islamic law, homophobic abuse and sexual humiliation.
In one post he replied to a woman: “I’d stomp on your head, wipe the floor with you, make you an example to others, and then divorce you :).”
In another he said: “He gave her a pre-emptive slap so she would redefine her boundaries, just as Russia slapped Ukraine to adjust its borders :).”
In another post he called a man a “coward and a scoundrel” for failing to violently assault his wife after catching her speaking to another man.
He said: “Anyone else would have stomped on her head and made her an example to others.”
Last week an Israeli official told The Times of Israel that Hammami had discussed killing Jewish people online, saying: “His social media accounts [say] clearly that he has been radicalised into jihadist ideology. He talks about killing Jews.”
All the posts were published during the period in which Hammami was studying remotely at BNU, the Telegraph reports.
The Flydubai flight was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv when Hammami allegedly attacked pilot Smit Machchhar and tried to disable the controls, causing the 737 Max to drop about 17,000ft. However Mr Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door despite his injuries allowing passengers to overpower the co-pilot.
It has also emerged that Hammami left Oman Air’s pilot-training programme after concerns were raised about his extremist ideology.
The suspect was forced to leave flight training with Oman Air because of concerns over his radical views, before subsequently transferring to another position at the national airline, sources have told CNN.
A LinkedIn profile belonging to a man named Hamam al-Hammami, who has been identified as the co-pilot accused in the attack, states that he worked for Oman Air for seven years before leaving in February 2025.
The profile says he then joined Moroccan airline Royal Air Maroc in June 2025, before leaving the company in January 2026.
The page made no mention of al-Hammami working for Flydubai.
However, one source confirmed to CNN that the account is understood to belong to the Flydubai pilot involved in Wednesday’s attack. The LinkedIn page has since been deleted.
