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Imagine what the outcome of this terror attack might have been like.

We are learning more about the attempted 9/11-style plane hijacking and suicide mission on the flydubai plane heading to Israel. The miraculous outcome of what was intended to be a catastrophic terror attack is still much in the news, and more information is still forthcoming — with more to follow.

Here is some of the new news. One ominous — but not unexpected — development is that the jihadists are calling for more such attacks. As a New York Post article states:

Al Qaeda called for copycat attacks on Americans and Israeli airliners in a vile post referencing 9/11 and praising the Dubai flight hijacker — whose social media accounts shared photos of one of the terror group’s leaders. The call appeared to come Friday in the latest edition of al-Bayan, a weekly publication launched in July by pro-Al Qaeda supporters, which invoked both the Sept. 11 attacks and Wednesday’s attempted takeover of Flydubai Flight FZ1073.

“The war isn’t over yet — planes carrying Zionists, Americans and all the other infidels fighting against Islam are still hovering in the skies and can be targeted, as happened on September 11th and 30th,” the Arabic-language article threatened. The article included an image of a plane crashing into the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, alongside an image referencing Wednesday’s attack on the Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight.

“America and the Zionists have far more enemies today than before,” the article said. “Perhaps a man who does not believe in God will target them and his operation will ultimately benefit Islam.” It added: “The day will come when the empire of evil America will end.”

And we now know the name of the attacker and more about his evil past. As one report states:

The FlyDubai co-pilot accused of attacking a captain on a Tel Aviv-bound flight earlier this week allegedly used the cockpit’s “crash axe” in the attack and has been identified as a 29-year-old Omani national. The co-pilot has been identified as Hamam al-Hammami, a Middle Eastern source told Fox News, adding that he was barred from flying with Oman Air — his country’s airline — in 2024 due to concerns about extremist views. The source also said authorities believe the co-pilot moved to Dubai later that year.

The United Arab Emirates, which is leading the investigation into the attack on FlyDubai Flight 1073, said the co-pilot attacked Capt. Smit Machchhar with the cockpit’s crash axe, incapacitating him and causing the aircraft to plummet before passengers on board seized control of the plane.

The source said al-Hammami spent a significant part of his life outside Oman, including time living with his mother, who is from Syria. According to the source, FlyDubai did not check with Oman Air about al-Hammami before hiring him.

A Gulf diplomat told The Associated Press that investigators are working to determine whether al-Hammami acted as a “lone wolf or has any connection with any extremist groups.” The AP separately reported that Oman had barred al-Hammami from flying over concerns he had adopted extremist views.

A Terror Plot With Far Greater Ambitions

One Indian commentator, Baba Banaras, said this about his real aims:

The terrorist pilot, Mohammed Hamam Al-Hammami, was not planning merely to crash the Israel-bound FlyDubai flight and kill 180 people, the majority of whom were Jews. His plan was bigger. He wanted to crash the plane into a high-rise skyscraper in Tel Aviv or the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and kill as many non-Muslims as possible.

According to intelligence sources, he was in contact with some radical elements in Iran, Pakistan, Syria, and Turkey. He was a big fan of Osama bin Laden, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and Pakistan-based UN-designated terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar. He visited Pakistan in August and Turkey in May. He was also a supporter of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

He was fired by Oman Air in 2024–2025 for regularly browsing extremist websites and expressing support for the Islamic State, jihad, and anti-non-Muslim sentiments during conversations with colleagues.

Also of concern is the fact that some reports are saying al-Hammami was a student at an Australian university:

Federal police and ASIO are investigating the co-pilot who allegedly tried to hijack an Israel-bound flight over his time in Australia after it was revealed he studied engineering at a local university. Multiple international media outlets have identified the co-pilot as Hammam al-Hammami, as more details emerge about his life after Wednesday’s terrifying Flydubai flight.

Also being examined are al-Hammami’s motives, whether he had been radicalised and whether he was acting as part of a plot orchestrated by Iran. A LinkedIn profile seen by CNN and US network ABC before it was deleted said that al-Hammami had previously studied engineering at an Australian university. The Australian Financial Review has not been able to independently verify the claim and the university has not been named publicly.

The university declined to comment because of the investigation, referring inquiries to the Australian Federal Police. The Federal Police said in a statement that the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team, made up of the AFP, Victoria Police and ASIO, were investigating the man’s links to Australia.

The Captain Who Refused To Give Up

As for the pilot who heroically withstood the Islamic jihadist:

The hero captain at the centre of the attempted hijacking of an Israel-bound flight has spoken out for the first time. Smit Machchhar, who is an Indian national, recounted the moment he fought off his co-pilot, who stabbed him in the head and arm at the start of his hijack attempt on Wednesday.

“In that moment, I was fighting for my life, but I knew I couldn’t let my passengers down,” Mr Machchhar told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a video call shared to YouTube. “I was acting on survival instincts, I had to give that one last push to open the door,” he said, speaking in his mother tongue…

The hijack attempt started about 2.5 hours into the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv. “And I knew in that moment — one last push, Smit. Just do it. The door is right there,” he recalled. “And even at that time, he was beating me up.” Mr Machchhar reportedly unlocked the door to the cockpit, to allow passengers to enter and take down the hijacker.

“And then I just opened it… and then everybody came,” he said. “I was doing this for my life, but at the same time, I knew that I couldn’t let everybody else die.”

Further Commentary

Much has already been said about this terrible event. Many helpful remarks have been made — here are just some of them:

Douglas Murray: What happened in the skies above Saudi Arabia on Wednesday morning stands as a metaphor for three years of war. The Israelis saw an existential threat, took matters into their own hands, and decided their own course. The rest of the West will have to decide whether it will follow the Israeli model or let its own future be dictated by terror and the hijacking of its entire society.

Joey Mannarino: Muslims just tried crashing a plane again. This time, it was the pilot doing it. And I’m supposed to want this in my country for what reason exactly?

Bill Maher: The media is always a little reluctant to call it terrorism when it’s obviously terrorism. The original reporting was the two pilots had an altercation. Yeah, they had a little argument. ‘I think we should crash the plane. You don’t.’ Agree to disagree.

Noa Tishby: Israelis knew exactly what this was the moment it started. Hijacking has been the weapon of choice for jihadist terrorists for decades, and the passengers on that flight didn’t wait for anyone to explain it to them. They fought back. And here’s the thing people keep missing. Terrorism isn’t the goal, it’s the strategy. The goal is what they’ve been telling us out loud for years, which is radical Islamism taking over the world. Israel and the Jews are just first in line. The rest of the world is next.

Dan Burmawi: The Muslim terrorist who tried to crash FlyDubai and kill 180 Jews was not radicalised; he was simply a faithful Muslim. You need to understand that, in Islam, non-Muslim life has no value. Stop projecting your own secularised Judeo-Christian worldview onto other cultures. What you consider radicalism is simply being devout in Islam. When you follow a prophet who literally beheaded an entire tribe because the leaders of that tribe were falsely accused of betraying Muhammad, then it is virtuous for you to crash a flight full of civilians because they belong to a country that rejected Islamic sovereignty.

Amy Mek: Dear Political Leaders, The Omani FlyDubai co-pilot who stabbed Captain Smit Machchhar and tried to crash a plane full of Israelis was not some inexplicable “extremist.” He was a practising Muslim who prayed constantly and refused to shake hands with women — the ordinary Sharia line on non-mahram contact. Colleagues noticed. The airline still put him in the cockpit on a flight to Tel Aviv. After 9/11, are we still forbidden to ask whether devout Muslim pilots are a screening problem, or does the next dive have to finish the job first?

Brother Rachid: The Omani co-pilot told Captain Smit Machchhar he wanted to pray. He stood behind him. The Indian captain looked away out of respect. Minutes later, he took a blow to the back of the head. Lied. Betrayed. Attacked the man sitting next to him. From his side, none of that is a contradiction. It is the doctrine, this is how they think: War against the infidel permits lying. This was war, and the passengers were the target. War is deceit. Deceiving a coworker is allowed. In the end, he is only a kafir headed for hell. The captain’s blood is halal. To reach the Jews, he had to be removed, and he was not a Muslim anyway. A dua for martyrdom can be said first. He probably said it. Killing Jews, enemies of Allah, is halal, and a full plane means many at once. Paradise is immediate. Sins forgiven. The crown of dignity. Intercession for 70 relatives. Seventy-two virgins. The highest place in Janna. No torment of the grave. Then the celebration across the Muslim world: a brave hero who struck the Jews. If we do not understand this mentality, we cannot defeat it. Dismiss the ideology, and we lose.

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Republished with thanks to CultureWatch. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.