Dubai — U.A.E. Says FlyDubai Co-Pilot Planned Israeli Airport Crash

The United Arab Emirates' attorney general said a FlyDubai co-pilot planned to crash an aircraft into an airport in Israel, according to The Wall Street Journal. The office identified the man as Hamam al-Hammami and, for the first time, laid out an official timeline of his travels before he was hired by the Dubai-based carrier, the Journal reported.

The disclosure marks the first detailed account from Emirati authorities of al-Hammami's movements in the period leading up to his employment with FlyDubai, according to the Journal. The attorney general's office did not previously make public a sequence of his travel history tied to the case.

What does the U.A.E. attorney general allege?

The core allegation, as reported by the Journal, is that al-Hammami intended to crash a FlyDubai aircraft into an airport inside Israel. The attorney general's statement represents the government's first formal timeline of the case, tracing the co-pilot's travels prior to joining the airline. The Journal's report does not specify the date of the alleged plot, the identity of the targeted airport, or the stage at which the plan was detected or stopped.

Who is Hamam al-Hammami?

Al-Hammami is named in the attorney general's account as a FlyDubai co-pilot, according to the Journal. FlyDubai is the budget carrier based in Dubai. The Journal's report does not include additional biographical detail on al-Hammami, such as his nationality, age, or how long he had flown for the airline before the alleged plot surfaced.

What does the timeline show?

The attorney general's office has now given an official sequence of al-Hammami's travels before he took the FlyDubai position, the Journal reported. Emirati prosecutors have treated that pre-employment travel history as material to the case, since it was presented as part of the government's formal account rather than as background color. The Journal described the release as the first time officials put that timeline on the record.

Beyond establishing that such a timeline exists and that it covers the period before al-Hammami joined FlyDubai, the available reporting does not detail specific stops, dates, or countries in that travel record.

What hasn't been disclosed?

The Journal's reporting leaves several elements of the case unaddressed in the material reviewed for this report: the current legal status of al-Hammami, including whether he has been charged, detained, or is facing trial; the specific flight or route involved; and whether the alleged plan reached an operational stage aboard an aircraft or was discovered beforehand. The report also does not specify when the U.A.E. attorney general's statement was issued relative to when the alleged plot took place.

Those gaps mean the full scope of the prosecution's case, and any response from al-Hammami or his legal representation, is not established in the source material reviewed here.

How does this affect FlyDubai and U.A.E.-Israel relations?

FlyDubai operates as the budget arm of Dubai's state-linked aviation sector and has flown routes connecting the Gulf to Israel since the two countries normalized relations under the 2020 Abraham Accords. An alleged plot by one of its own co-pilots targeting an Israeli airport touches directly on the aviation security arrangements that have underpinned that commercial relationship. Neither the Journal's report nor any other material reviewed here indicates whether Israeli authorities have issued a parallel statement on the case or whether the alleged plan prompted changes to flight security protocols between the two countries.

The attorney general's disclosure of a formal timeline, rather than a bare allegation, suggests Emirati prosecutors are building a documented record of the case, a step that typically precedes formal charges or a court filing in criminal matters. Further detail on the charges, the targeted airport, and al-Hammami's current custody status would clarify how the case proceeds from here. The Journal's full report, including any additional detail from the attorney general's office, is available at the link below.

Readers seeking the complete timeline and any further statements from Emirati or Israeli officials should consult the original Wall Street Journal account, which HTT News has relied on for the facts in this report.

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