An Omani co-pilot's shocking confession revealed his plan to crash a Flydubai flight into Israeli territory, thwarted by the heroic actions of Captain Smit Machchhar, passengers, and crew. The attacker, suspended earlier for extremist views, stabbed the captain but failed to seize control, leading to a safe emergency landing in Tabuk.
IT HAS BEEN five days since Smit Machchhar, along with some flight attendants and passengers, saved the lives of hundreds of people on the aircraft on September 30, 2026. The incident happened on a flydubai aircraft en-route from Dubai to Tel Aviv, where the co-pilot, identified as Hamam Al-Hammami by multiple sources, stabbed Smit and tried to take control of the plane but failed to do so. An off-duty pilot was present on the plane and took over, landing the aircraft safely in the Saudi Arabian city of Tabuk.
The plane had a total of 174 passengers, including many other flight attendants whose lives were in danger because of 29-year-old Hamam Al Hammami, the co-pilot who attacked the captain in an attempt to crash the aircraft. He is an Omani national who was reportedly suspended by the Omani aviation authorities in 2025 because of his radical views and safety risks. His confession about the incident has now been widely reported by the media.
Hammami, according to multiple media sources, was born in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to an Omani father and a Syrian mother. The UAE is currently investigating Hammami and, according to reports, he has confessed that he used the emergency axe on the plane to hurt Machchhar and take control of the aircraft. He had allegedly already planned the crash and decided to crash the plane into Israeli territory, either into a skyscraper or the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.
When questioned about the incident, according to WSJ, Hammami said that he wanted the plane crash to happen and that he was not afraid of dying. As per Firstpost, he revealed that he had been researching which planes flew to Tel Aviv and chose the organization he joined. “The dream was to crash into Ben-Gurion Airport,” AI-Hammami reportedly added. He also revealed that in the past, he had been gathering intelligence and had decided to implement his plan to crash the plane around July 2026.
As per The Week, investigative agencies in the UAE and Israel are also trying to find out whether any terrorist organization was involved in indoctrinating him. They have reportedly found that Hammami had an extremist Islamic ideology and never tried to hide it from anyone. He allegedly tried to avoid women in the company, never spoke to them, and avoided physical contact such as handshakes. On social media, he also reportedly posted pro-Palestine, pro-Hamas, and anti-Israel content, along with some content supporting suicide attacks.
Smit Machchhar was taken to hospital as soon as the plane landed because he had been stabbed with an axe and had suffered serious injuries to his body. He was later reported to be in a stable condition, and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi video-called him on Friday October 2, 2026, to ask about the incident.
Smit said that as soon as he was attacked, he fell to the ground and was still being attacked, but he suddenly realized that there were 182 people inside the plane and decided to push himself one last time.
He said he was fighting for his life and had fallen, while being attacked, injured, and stabbed. He said that he had 17 years of experience and had been a captain for 11 years, allowing him to understand what was happening inside the plane. He could feel that the plane was falling down. “When I fell, I could tell the plane was going down. I told myself to give it a last push,” Smit said. He told himself to get up, thinking that the door was very close.
Even though he had been stabbed and the attacker continued hitting him, he managed to open the door, after which the flight attendants and passengers came in to help. He commended everyone who came inside to handle the attacker for playing an equally important role in saving the people on board. Machchhar said he was fighting for his own life but, at the same time, was not going to let the people inside the aircraft die.
(Edited by Harsh Pandey)
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