The United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities, on Friday, revealed that Flydubai co-pilot Hamam Al-Hammani, who stabbed Captain Smit Machchar in an attempt to crash a plane carrying 170 passengers, was radicalised in 2017 and inspired by al-Qaeda’s 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Hamad Saif Al Shamsi, the UAE’s Attorney General, disclosed this amid ongoing investigations into the foiled Flydubai flight terror attack, Emirati state news agency WAM reported on Friday.

Mr Al-Hammani drew “inspiration from the September 11, 2001 attacks, and the consolidation of the idea of ​​carrying out a similar operation using an airplane, which, according to his confessions, was linked to his inclination towards pursuing a career in aviation.”

The 29-year-old Omani citizen planned the attack, aiming to crash the plane into “the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, with the intention of causing the greatest possible number of human casualties.”

The UAE Attorney General said investigations found that Mr Al-Hammani was radicalised while studying in Australia, adding that “it became clear that the signs of his inclination towards extremism and terrorism began in 2017, during his studies in Australia, where he was influenced by takfiri ideas through his reading of extremist writings and his following of electronic content that glorifies terrorist organisations and suicide operations.”

He worked for Oman Air from 2020 until 2024, then joined Royal Air Maroc in early 2025, where he worked for several months before moving to Flydubai in January 2026.

Mr Al-Hammani’s foiled terror attack came barely a month after the United States marked the 25th anniversary of the deadly terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, which killed at least 2,977 people.

Known as 9/11 because the attacks occurred on September 11, 2001, the attacks saw al-Qaeda terrorists led by Osama bin Laden deploy four hijacked commercial planes to strike the United States.

While two of the hijacked planes crashed into and wrecked the World Trade Centre’s twin towers in New York City, another struck the Pentagon, the U.S. military headquarters outside Washington, D.C. The fourth crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania as passengers fought back against the hijackers.

The 9/11 attacks claimed lives across 77 countries, causing global mourning and eliciting a vigorous push for changes in the global fight against terrorism.