The United Arab Emirates Attorney-General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi announced on Friday that the Omani flydubai pilot who attempted to hijack flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on September 30 planned to commit a suicide attack with the aircraft, targeting a Ben-Gurion Airport passenger terminal, Emirati state news agency WAM reported.
According to Shamsi, the attack was premeditated, with the pilot, 29-year-old Hamam al-Hammami, having begun his shift toward extremism in 2017 while studying in Australia.
Shamsi added that Hammami intended to cause the highest number of casualties possible in his attack, for which he drew inspiration from the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Hammami confessed that the idea of committing such an act was part of what drove him to pursue an aviation career in the first place, Shamsi said.
Shamsi's statement noted Hammami's aviation career history, with the Omani national having worked for four years at Oman Air before a short-lived position with Moroccan carrier Royal Air Maroc in 2025, and joining flydubai in January.
UAE investigators determined that Hammami met both the professional and security requirements to join flydubai at the time he was hired, and the airline was unaware of his intentions or extremism in general.
The UAE attorney-general further discussed the midair response to the attempted hijacking, during which Hammami attacked flydubai Capt. Smit Machchhar with a cockpit crash axe.
This is a developing story.