Flydubai crash axe attack proves the threat sits in the cockpit

By Daniel Okafor · Reporting from New York · October 4, 2026

A co-pilot used a crash axe to attack his captain over Israel, proving that the greatest threat to a cabin is the man sitting in it.

The axe falls two miles up

A passenger saw the captain fall out of the cockpit first. The co-pilot was on top of him and stabbing him. The plane began to dive.

Flight FZ1073 left Dubai for Tel Aviv. It carried 174 passengers, mostly Israeli. Two and a half hours into the journey, according to BBC and NBC News, the Boeing plunged 17,000 feet. Passengers felt a massive G-force.

The co-pilot was Hamam al-Hammami, an Omani citizen. He picked up the cockpit's emergency crash axe and struck Captain Smit Machchhar. According to NBC News, UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said investigations revealed the co-pilot attempted a terrorist act and tried to take control of the aircraft's flight controls.

The plane declared a general emergency at 05:31 and a hijacking alert at 05:38. Tali Manes heard a commotion from the cockpit and raised the alarm. Zvika Manes, Yaniv Hayun, Dr Shota Musayev, and Asaf Rajuan rushed forward.

Captain Machchhar was bleeding heavily from severe head and hand injuries. He could sense the aircraft was going down. Machchhar said to NBC News, "I told myself to go for one last push to open the door from inside." He unlocked the heavy door.

Yaniv Hayun entered the flight deck. He saw the attacker trying to destroy the instruments to disable the plane. Hayun put the attacker in a chokehold, pulled him from the cockpit, and pulled the controls to level the aircraft. Two reserve pilots landed the jet safely at Tabuk Airport in north-west Saudi Arabia at 06:58.

The radical who slipped through the net

Al-Hammami should not have been at the controls. Reuters, CNN, and The New York Times named him as the attacker. The Wall Street Journal reported he had previously been banned from flying by Oman over concerns he had adopted radical views. US media reported he was removed from flight training at Oman Air due to those views. Al Arabiya reported Omani authorities determined he spent time in Syria.

He held a student visa for Australia between 2015 and 2017. Australian authorities cancelled it because he was not enrolled in a course. He graduated with a degree in aviation management in 2023 from Buckinghamshire New University in the UK via a distance-learning course. Buckinghamshire New University said he did not take pilot training there.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacker underwent Islamist radical indoctrination. Netanyahu said the attacker called out "Kill me, kill me!" after being subdued. Netanyahu said, "So, it's clear that he was suicidal… It looks very likely that he was going to down the plane." Netanyahu also said the pilot, passengers, and second crew managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster.

This shares the mechanism of Germanwings Flight 9525, where a cockpit crew member uses their authorized access to deliberately crash a passenger plane.

Some will argue that tighter background checks or bans on pilots from certain nations can stop every rogue crew member. But al-Hammami slipped past Oman's grounding, Australian visa checks, and British distance learning. The barrier failed because the threat wore a uniform and sat in the seat.

The price of survival

The cost of this flight belongs to the blood on the flight deck and the men who stopped the dive. Captain Machchhar spent eleven years flying commercial routes for SpiceJet, logging thousands of hours on Boeing 737 aircraft before joining Flydubai. That experience kept him alive long enough to unlock the door.

The Indian embassy in the UAE said Machchhar was in good health and recovering well in an Abu Dhabi hospital. The Indian government praised his immense courage. UAE Deputy Prime Minister Hamdan bin Mohammed wrote that Machchhar has their full appreciation and praise.

Flydubai maintained regular flights to Tel Aviv throughout the Gaza war while other major airlines halted their routes, keeping Israel connected to the wider world. That commitment put 170 people on a target.

The aviation industry prefers to treat cockpit security as a wall against outsiders. It builds steel doors and installs digital locks. It spends billions keeping the cabin safe from the passenger cabin while ignoring the seat beside the captain. When the man holding the axe is the man flying the plane, the locks only trap the victims inside.

Flydubai crash axe attack proves the threat sits in the cockpit

The axe falls two miles up

The radical who slipped through the net

The price of survival

Sources