‘Religious extremist’ who attacked colleague and tried to crash FlyDubai plane is Omani national who studied remotely at British university – as it’s revealed he used an AXE

The ‘religious extremist’ pilot who allegedly stabbed his colleague in a suspected hijacking attempt has been named.

The suspected attacker has been identified as 29-year-old Hamam Al Hammami, an Omani national.

According to ABC News, Al Hammami was found with extremist materials while working as a co-pilot trainee for Oman Air in 2024. He was then demoted to an administrative role, sources said.

A source at the Buckinghamshire New University reportedly confirmed that Al Hammami completed a three-year distance-learning course and graduated with a degree in aviation management in 2023. The source said that Al Hammami did not take any pilot training at the school.

It is understood the alleged hijacker also studied engineering at a university in Australia.

Al Hammami is understood to have used an axe in the attempt to take control of the aircraft, the prosecutor general has said. 

Officials are understood to be investigating how the attacker was allowed to fly for FlyDubai and how he ended up as the first officer in the cockpit of a plane headed for Israel.

According to sources close to the investigation, Al Hammami, who was transferred Thursday from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates, is said to be ‘cooperating’.

The Daily Mail has gone to the university for comment.

Passengers and crew wrestled with the co-pilot after he allegedly attacked his colleague and attempted to take control of the Flydubai jet cruising at altitude from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning.

They then grappled to regain control of the plane, which had plummeted 14,000ft in just 29 seconds, while the severely wounded captain Smit Machchhar lay drenched in his blood on the floor. It is believed a British off-duty pilot was among the saviours. 

A major disaster was said to be narrowly avoided when brave passengers onboard Flight FZ1073 are understood to have subdued the pilot who allegedly tried to hijack the flight, according to Israeli officials. 

Video footage at the time captured the terrifying screams and cries of passengers as the plane plunged into an erratic descent. 

The flight, carrying 182 people from Dubai to Tel Aviv, was diverted to Tabuk in north-western Saudi Arabia for an emergency landing. 

It transmitted a general emergency signal using a squawk code – four-digit numbers used for in-flight communication – of 7700 while making a U-turn over the border between the two countries.

While flying over Saudi Arabia, it briefly issued a code of 7500, signalling unlawful interference or a hijacking. Officials feared the incident could have become another ‘September 11’ attack, adding that passengers had prevented an ‘Israeli 9/11’ by tying up the assailant.

A person who heard the crew’s mayday call with air traffic control described the plane being turned away by Saudi Arabia and Jordan before eventually landing in the major city located in the northwest of the Kingdom.

The person, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the pilot’s voice was trembling as he called ‘mayday’ and said a hijacking was taking place and ambulances would be needed.

But Saudi Arabia initially denied clearance to land and directed him to Jordan. The plane was told to wait for clearance from the Jordanian military and then turned away.

The pilot then returned to Saudi Arabia and said he had to land in Tabuk. The air traffic control operators gave no reason for the earlier refusals.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the alleged attacker was arrested in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday afternoon and was undergoing interrogation there. 

Passengers and crew, including the captain Mr Machchhar, have been hailed for their bravery in preventing what is believed to be an attempted suicide mission. One of whom is said to have been an off-duty British pilot.

Mr Machchhar was praised for saving the lives of those 174 passengers on board, which included four Americans. While cruising mid-air, the hero was able to fight off his co-pilot in the cockpit and his attempts to sabotage the plane’s systems.

Distressing footage showed Mr Machchhar lying on the ground covered in blood as passengers tended to his injuries, while another pilot is seen seemingly lying nearby unconscious. Passengers can be heard telling one of the men: ‘You saved the plane.’

Delhi’s embassy in Saudi Arabia has since confirmed Mr Machchhar is being treated in a hospital in Tabuk.

The incident was described as ‘an attempted jihadist terror attack’ by Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz, which was ‘thwarted only thanks to the heroism of several Israeli passengers’.

This includes one, named by local media as Yaniv Hayun, who was called a ‘hero’ by Mr Netanyahu during a meeting as he arrived back in Tel Aviv.

Mr Hayun, who was wearing a blood-soaked T-shirt, embraced the Israeli PM before describing how he broke down the cockpit door and wrestled the alleged terrorist before taking over control of the plane – the skills of which he credits to his watching of TV show Air Disasters, which investigates notable aviation crises.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Mr Hayoun recounted the terrifying moment he stepped in, describing how he put the pilot in a headlock and prevented him from interfering with the controls as the jet plunged towards the ground.

‘About an hour before landing, a woman started shouting,’ he said, ‘At the front of the aircraft, a woman started screaming something about stabbing: “He’s stabbing him, he’s stabbing him.”‘

Hayoun said he ran towards the cockpit, which is where the woman’s screams were coming from, but as he approached, the plane nosedived.

Photos from the incident show blood-covered passengers in the aftermath of the attack, after they successfully managed to overpower the knifeman and prevent him from continuing his assault.

‘It lasted several seconds. I don’t know exactly how many seconds it was, but they say we lost 14,000 or 15,000 feet in less than a minute — the aircraft lost that altitude. It was enormous.’

Speaking later, one passenger said the turbulence felt like ‘riding a rollercoaster’.

Another passenger, Zvika Manes, said people were ‘flying out of their seats’ before the plane stabilised.

When he managed to recover from the shock, Mr Hayoun says he got to the door of the cockpit, where someone was holding the handle.

‘I opened the door – I pushed the door while he was holding the handle. I pushed it open and went inside. On the floor, right beside the door, was the pilot. He was lying there. He was very seriously injured.’

‘There was no pilot in the pilot’s seat. One pilot was lying beside the door, seriously injured but conscious. His eyes were open. Between the two seats are the aircraft’s controls.’

Mr Hayoun recounted how the knifeman had his knees on the plane’s controls, ‘as though trying to interfere with the instruments’.

‘He was leaning forward toward the aircraft’s controls. So I grabbed him by the throat,’ he said, ‘I pushed him out toward the exit and started shouting for people to come and help because he was resisting.’

The hero explained that at least three other Israelis rushed to his aid.

‘We subdued him with blows. We had to stun him, so he took some blows. We tied him up.

‘Once he was no longer a threat, we simply stood over him and made sure he couldn’t free himself. He may even have lost consciousness for a few minutes – I don’t know.’

After the pilot had been subdued, Mr Hayoun quickly returned to the plane’s controls, in a desperate attempt to save the aircraft from plummeting to the ground.

‘I leaned over the seat, reached forward with my hands and pulled the controls toward me because the aircraft was pointing downward. I pulled the controls back toward me. It was only for a few seconds.’

Speaking to the Mail after safely returning to Israel, the grandfather explained how he miraculously knew what to do in the terrifying moments.

‘There’s a programme called Air Crash Investigation…The images are frightening and they make my wife afraid of flying, so I watch it secretly when she isn’t watching with me.

‘I saw on it that when an aircraft is going downward, you have to bring the controls back — pull them backward — to bring the nose level. It really was only for a few seconds. It wasn’t as though I flew the plane.’

He later recounted how his daughter used to ask him how the plane documentary would ‘ever be useful’.

‘Well, this is where it became useful to me,’ he said, ‘What I had seen became useful to me in the only attempt I’ve ever had in my life to survive. It was one shot – one opportunity.’

Despite his insistence he only helped for a’ few seconds’, Mr Hayoun’s heroic actions allowed time for one of the off-duty pilots on the plane to step in and take control.

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