The co-pilot of the FlyDubai plane who allegedly attacked the plane’s captain and attempted to crash a flight bound for Israel on Wednesday is an Omani national who was previously suspended by Oman Air after being identified as a security risk, according to senior intelligence and law enforcement officials.
Sources told ABC News that the suspect, while working as a co-pilot trainee for Oman Air in 2024, was found to be in possession of extremist materials. He was grounded from flying for one year but was allowed to continue working for the airline in an administrative role, the sources said.
Officials investigating the incident are still trying to determine how the suspected attacker was subsequently permitted to fly for FlyDubai and how he ended up as the first officer in the cockpit of a plane headed for Israel, the sources said.
The suspect — who was transferred Thursday from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates — is said to be “cooperating” with authorities investigating the incident and has indicated that his intent was to crash the aircraft in Israel, according to sources briefed on the investigation.
The disaster was averted when the flight’s captain, Smit Machchhar, fought back and a number of passengers subdued and restrained the attacker, who had sent the plane into a rapid dive.
One of the passengers, Israeli plumber Yaniv Hayoun, said he pulled back on the controls to steady the plane until a third pilot, who was traveling in the passenger cabin, took over. The flight eventually landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
One of the passengers who ran to the front of the plane, Dr. Shota Musaev, told ABC News in an interview this week that the attacker — who was bloodied and restrained on the floor outside the cockpit — told him he was from Oman. Musaev said that at one point the suspect asked Musaev to kill him.
A flydubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft prepares for landing at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in Lod, Sept. 30, 2026.
Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
“He said, ‘Kill me please, kill me please,'” Musaev said.
Israeli officials are expected to be on the ground and involved in the questioning of the suspect, sources said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said that the suspected attacker, who he didn’t name, had undergone “Islamist radicalization.”
“He came to crash the plane with all passengers on board,” Netanyahu said in a video released by his office. “We are investigating whether he was sent, and whoever sent him will pay a very heavy price.”
Netanyahu also again heaped praise on Hayoun and the other heroic passengers for preventing a “tragedy like 9/11.”
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