The pilot suspected of attacking another pilot aboard a Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv on Wednesday was dismissed from his job at Oman’s national airline last year following concerns about his extremist views, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
The pilot is an Omani citizen named Hamam al-Hammami, according to the two sources and an Israeli official. Saudi state media also identified al-Hammami. He was born in the United Arab Emirates to an Omani father and a Syrian mother and spent several years of his life in the United Arab Emirates, one of the sources added.
A LinkedIn profile with the name Hamam al-Hammami says he worked at Oman Air for seven years, leaving in February 2025, before joining Royal Air Maroc in June 2025 and leaving in January 2026. The page made no mention of Flydubai. One of the sources confirmed that the profile belonged to the Flydubai pilot during Wednesday’s incident. The profile has since been deleted and CNN has contacted LinkedIn for comment.
The second source, a diplomat from the region, told CNN that the suspect was removed from flight training over concerns about his radical views and was given another role at Oman’s national airline.
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the suspect was allegedly subjected to “radical Islamist indoctrination.”
The Israeli official told CNN that al-Hammami had only worked for Flydubai for eight months. A fourth source said the alleged attacker previously worked for Royal Air Maroc.
These revelations will raise concerns about the importance of background checks during aviation recruitment. CNN has contacted Oman Air, Royal Air Maroc and the Dubai Government Media Office for comment.
Flydubai said it could not provide comment while the incident was still under investigation.
Threat of mutilation and death
Only two posts were made on the LinkedIn profile, and both were posted in quick succession on Wednesday, about nine hours after the incident.
It is not known who posted these messages or whether they were scheduled in advance.
The first article featured a series of clips filmed in the cockpits of a Boeing 737 Max. The plane that diverted to Saudi Arabia in Wednesday’s incident was a Flydubai 737 Max 8.
In a clip geotagged by CNN at Dubai International Airport, the person filming zooms in on a plane belonging to Israeli airline El Al.
In the video, the cockpit screen showed the flight number – OMA624 – and the date, October 11, 2023. The flight number corresponds to a flight that usually connects Dubai to Muscat. The date corresponds to the period he worked at Oman Air.
In other clips of the video, other El Al planes, as well as a plane from Arkia, another Israeli airline, are shown.
The video ends with a photo of Ayman al-Zawahiri, who led al-Qaeda after the death of Osama bin Laden, and a photo of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who killed nine people, including seven American CIA officers and contractors, in a suicide attack in 2009, and who was loyal to al-Qaeda.
The second post features an AI-generated image depicting the three holiest sites in Islam – in Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem – connected by a continuous light trail. A poem of defiance recited in the background speaks of rejecting humiliation, not fearing death, and defending one’s dignity.
Al-Hammami’s LinkedIn page says he studied at Buckinghamshire New University in England. A university source confirmed to CNN that a man by that name completed a three-year distance learning course and graduated with a degree in aviation management in 2023.
The same two videos were posted around the same time on an Instagram account with the same name and photos, before that account was also deleted. CNN has contacted Meta for comment.
A CNN analysis of al-Hammami’s deleted Twitter account shows him as deeply religious and misogynistic.
In deleted messages, al-Hammami spoke of the difficulties his mother faced in finding him a future wife who would accept his conditions that she wear a niqab, a mask and stop working after marriage.
“They all refused. Then my mother told them, ‘My son is a pilot,’ and they all suddenly agreed,” the February 2022 post said.
The publications also denounce mixed workplaces, saying they have a corrupting effect on women.
“How many respectable, religious girls have been ruined in mixed and manipulated work environments? says a January 2022 article.
The nearly 3,000 deleted tweets, posted between 2021 and 2022, were analyzed and sorted using an AI-powered semantic search model.
Questions are mounting over how a citizen of Oman, which does not recognize Israel, was allowed to serve as pilot on a flight to Tel Aviv, despite Israel’s strict air security measures.
An Israeli official told CNN on Wednesday that several Israeli agencies – including the Shin Bet, Mossad, the army and the Ministry of Transportation – were investigating how the Omani pilot became a member of the flight crew.
The pilot attempted to commit a “terrorist act” by attacking his colleague with an ax inside the cockpit and trying to take control of the plane, UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said on Saturday, according to the official WAM news agency.
UAE authorities have jurisdiction to investigate the incident because the plane is registered in the country, and UAE law applies to crimes committed on board its planes even when they occur outside the country’s territory, WAM said.
Netanyahu told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Wednesday evening that the attacker had been questioned in Saudi Arabia, where the plane was hijacked, and that Israel was involved in the investigation.
“I spoke to the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, and he agreed for Israel to join the interrogations,” he said.
CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, Mostafa Salem, Andrew Carey and Billy Stockwell contributed to this article.
Gn headline
