How flydubai security failure, across 3 countries, almost led to 'Israel’s 9/11’

File photo: A flydubai aircraft at Ben Gurion International Airport

A string of security failures across Oman, the UAE and Israel allowed the flydubai co-pilot to get into the cockpit, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found. The lapses nearly led to an aviation disaster reminiscent of 9/11, despite authorities having reasons to be concerned about him.The failures began in Oman, where authorities had scrutinised Hamam al-Hammami’s online activity and found he showed too much interest in radical ideology to be trusted as a pilot at state carrier Oman Air. They banned him from flying, sent him to a deradicalisation programme and moved him to a desk job, but did not broadly communicate their concerns about him.

Oman flagged him, but the warning did not travel

When al-Hammami joined flydubai in February, the airline did not contact Oman to vet his previous experience, the WSJ reported.

It conducted a criminal-background check, but the earlier concerns that had led Oman to remove him from flying were not passed on to the new employer. The operator, flydubai, later assigned him to the sensitive Tel Aviv route, which he flew multiple times.

Hammam al-Hammami

Oman’s handling of the case also created another missed opportunity. People familiar with the matter said that had the country formally withdrawn al-Hammami’s pilot licence over its concerns, the action would likely have been flagged to the UAE.

Instead, the concerns about his extremism were not communicated more widely.

Israel had his name, and still let him fly

The final layer of failures came in Israel, where foreign airlines are required to submit passenger and crew lists before arriving.Airline operator flydubai had submitted the manifest for Flight 1073, but Israel’s transportation ministry said it did not believe it had the authority or expertise to vet foreign flight crews. The ministry also said it had never asked to access a database created in 2023 to help authorised agencies review passenger and crew information because it did not know the database was operational or that it could use it.There was an even more basic warning that should have stopped al-Hammami from flying to Israel. Pilots from countries such as Oman, which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, are barred from flying to the country. Yet al-Hammami was allowed onto the Tel Aviv-bound flight.Israel’s own previous warnings also raise questions about how the system failed. A classified May 2024 report by the country’s comptroller general had warned that aviation security had grown lax, with fragmented responsibilities and unclear lines of authority.

The report also identified manpower and budget problems affecting oversight by the transportation ministry.

The cockpit attack

The security failures culminated halfway through Flight 1073, when al-Hammami attacked Captain Smit Machchhar with an emergency axe after excusing himself to pray.The wounded captain managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and others to enter and overpower the co-pilot. They then helped pull the aircraft out of a dangerous dive.The UAE’s attorney general has described the incident as an attempted terrorist act. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel suspect al-Hammami was trying to crash the aircraft in Tel Aviv, according to people familiar with their thinking. All three countries are investigating whether he acted alone; so far, investigators have not found links to a foreign power or major terrorist organisation, those people said.The incident has since prompted Israel to review the security of foreign airline flights to the country.