The man suspected of trying to turn a Flydubai passenger jet into a weapon is expected to face the death penalty in the United Arab Emirates once the investigation is completed, according to a senior Emirati source. But before that happens, investigators in Abu Dhabi will have to answer a far more uncomfortable question: How was Hamam al-Hammami allowed anywhere near a cockpit?
UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi is overseeing the investigation. One of the emirate’s most senior officials confirmed to me that Mossad personnel and Israeli aviation experts had arrived secretly in Abu Dhabi to take part, alongside senior Saudi and Omani intelligence officials and at least two representatives of U.S. intelligence agencies. It is not yet clear whether all will enter the interrogation room. The Israelis will.
Hammam al-Hamami
The investigation is focusing on the allegation that al-Hamami, a 29-year-old Omani co-pilot, intended not simply to crash the aircraft but to seize control from the Indian captain and fly it into a high-rise in Israel, in an attack modeled on the Twin Towers. According to information emerging from the investigation, the likely target was Tel Aviv’s Azrieli Towers. That makes what happened before the flight even more troubling. Al-Hamami had reportedly been removed from flying duties at Oman Air after extremist material was discovered in his possession. He was shifted to an administrative role and ultimately dismissed. He later moved to Morocco, traveled to Syria and was hired by Flydubai, where he spent eight months and flew to Israel dozens of times, including only days before the incident.
The failures appear to run across several borders. Oman did not pass its concerns to Abu Dhabi. The UAE did not conduct the kind of background investigation that might have exposed them. Israel, despite requiring foreign airlines to submit crew lists in advance, apparently did not insist on learning more about an Omani pilot whose previous employment had ended under suspicious circumstances.
The Emirati source is not trying to disguise the scale of that failure. Airlines worldwide are short thousands of pilots, he noted, creating pressure to recruit qualified candidates quickly. “You wouldn’t imagine that we would knowingly recruit a terrorist to an airline,” he said. “It is certainly fair to say there was a very serious failure here.” Investigators are now looking at who recruited al-Hamami, how he was hired so quickly and whether the recruitment process itself warrants scrutiny. His repeated visits to Syria are also being examined, including possible links to extremist circles.
For Israel, the lesson is equally clear. Screening a foreign airline is not enough if the people sitting in its cockpit are not scrutinized with the same seriousness. The episode is likely to force much deeper checks of foreign flight crews bound for Israel, regardless of the airline or country involved.
And in Abu Dhabi, the ending already appears to be taking shape. The senior source said al-Hamami is expected to receive the death penalty once the investigation and legal proceedings are completed. No passengers were killed, but Emirati authorities appear determined to impose the harshest punishment available, both as a deterrent and as a message to whoever may have helped radicalize or encourage him.