Australia

Canberra, October 10, 2026. The Australian press has picked up the accusation made by UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi on Friday, October 9, that Omani co-pilot Hammam al-Hammami, 29, wanted to crash the Flydubai FZ1073 flight into the terminal at Ben-Gurion Airport. However, it first makes it an Australian story: the drift towards extremism allegedly began in 2017, during his studies in Melbourne.

According to the statement relayed by the WAM agency, the suspect claimed to have been inspired by the September 11, 2001 attacks and to have used two previous flights to Tel Aviv to "get familiar with the route and the airport". SBS details his time in Melbourne: at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), he allegedly associated with people linked to a "My Centre" run by a Lebanese man nicknamed "Abu Hamza" and supported by an association close to the Muslim Brotherhood. The Guardian Australia adds that, according to the prosecutor, he fed on extremist literature and online content glorifying suicide attacks, and then prepared himself physically by taking boxing lessons.

The ABC recalls that the Australian Federal Police are examining his stay in the country and potential links to extremism. The Guardian specifies that the security services opened an investigation the previous weekend, after it was revealed that he had spent about two years in Australia until 2017. The university confirmed that he had studied on its Melbourne campus but "did not validate an engineering degree".

The account of the flight is reported without reserve: over Saudi Arabia, the co-pilot struck Indian captain Smit Machchhar with the emergency axe. PerthNow, citing a dispatch, mentions a 4,900-meter drop in 30 seconds before two other pilots on board took control and landed in Saudi Arabia. According to the ABC, the injured captain was able to unlock the cockpit door, allowing passengers to intervene.

PerthNow finally notes that the statement "does not seem to implicate Flydubai": the investigation indicates that the recruit met all professional and security requirements. Neither the isolated nature of the act, claimed by the suspect, nor the establishment of facts by a court has been settled: the articles present the elements as Emirati allegations.