Flydubai Pilot Reportedly Planned Attack on Israel for Months, Evaded UAE's Flight Ban

With investigations underway, new media reports have emerged about Hamam al-Hammami, the pilot of Flydubai flight FZ1073, who reportedly wanted to crash the plane into Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv and was previously barred from flying by the UAE.

Security Lapses: Associated Press (Lean Left bias) said the investigation's "preliminary details have highlighted several major security lapses," including that al-Hammami was already barred from flying by the UAE. According to "regional officials," the United Arab Emirates shared a list of passengers and crew with Israel before the flight – something that AP said is standard operating procedure. AP's sources, who remained anonymous because they were reportedly not allowed to speak to the press, said Israel didn't "raise any red flags" on any of the passengers. Top Israeli aviation security official Dvir Rubenstein reportedly said the Transportation Ministry doesn't have the resources to check every passenger on every flight. AP added, "It also remains unclear how a citizen of Oman, an Arab country that has no diplomatic relations with Israel, was allowed to fly a planeload of Israelis to Tel Aviv." The Times of Israel (Center) reported that Israeli security officials have traveled to the UAE to participate in the investigation.

Premeditated: Reuters (Center) reported "​​according to two Israeli officials with knowledge of the probe," al-Hammami had planned the attack before he was even hired by Flydubai. A third source who was "briefed on" the UAE's investigation said last week he planned to crash into Ben Gurion Airport and that he also operated a Tel Aviv flight earlier this year that he planned to hijack and crash, but opted not to. The Jerusalem Post (Center) reported some direct quotes from al-Hammami during his interrogationthat an "Israeli source" passed onto it. He allegedly said, "I tried to get hired by all the airlines. I planned the operation even before I was accepted by the company," and "The dream was to crash into Ben-Gurion Airport." JPost also highlighted a report from Italian outlet Corriere Della Sera, attributed to Israeli intel officials who claimed al-Hammami said he wanted to crash into skyscrapers in the city too. Israeli outlet Ynet also reported this, citing a UAE source.

Pilot's Past: Britain's The Telegraph (Center) said that according to his social media posts, al-Hammami "advocated violence against women and called for severe religious punishments" while enrolled at Buckinghamshire New University, where he studied aviation. The Telegraph prominently added, "He also appeared to praise Russia's invasion of Ukraine." The Telegraph said it doesn't believe there were any concerns or complaints raised while al-Hammami studied there, though the university is now planning to conduct a review of his tenure there.

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