The Australian authorities today confirmed that they are investigating alleged links to the country of the co-pilot of a Flydubai flight that will have attacked the pilot during a trip to Israel.
© Lusa
05/10/2026
by
Lusa
A Australian Federal Police (AFP) said that the Victoria Joint Counterterrorism Team, integrated by AFP, Victoria Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, is investigating man's alleged links to Australia.
This was after the local press revealed that Flydubai's co-pilot, Hamam al Hammami, born in Oman, obtained a student visa in 2014 and studied in Australia between 2015 and 2017.
AFP will investigate whether Hamam al Hammami has radicalized during his stay in the country.
The co-pilot visa was cancelled in 2019 after being no longer enrolled in a course, according to sources cited by Australian public broadcaster ABC.
The incident happened on Wednesday, when the two pilots of a flight that made the route between Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and Tel Aviv (Israel) confronted in the cabin, which caused a crash of the plane of 5,000 meters in less than 30 seconds, generating panic on board and leading to emergency alerts.
A further investigation by the UAE prosecutor concluded that the copilot attempted to attack the pilot and divert the plane, initiating “the execution of a terrorist attack”.
The copilot had already been prevented from flying on Oman for suspicion of extremist behaviour.
The case is also being investigated by the authorities of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a review of security measures on international flights to Israel following the attack.
“Netanyahu instructed the Director of the National Security Council, Shmuel Ben Ezra, to appoint a person responsible for conducting a comprehensive review of all aspects related to foreign civil aviation security to Israel,” said the Prime Minister’s office in a statement.
According to Army Radio (“Galei Tzahal” in Hebrew), the Israeli Ministry of Transport received warnings from several Israeli agencies indicating deficiencies in the supervision of foreign pilots flying to the country.
Quoting confidential documents, the radio said that in 2025 and 2024 the Ministry was alerted to the lack of compliance with aviation safety responsibilities.
Israeli security guidelines forbid pilots from countries with which Israel does not maintain diplomatic relations, such as Oman, from flying to Israel.