New Zealand Police announced on Tuesday that flydubai pilot-terrorist Hamam al-Hammami had previously resided in the country to complete portions of his professional flight training. Authorities stated that the suspect stayed in New Zealand between November 2018 and May 2019 on a student visa, working for a UK-headquartered firm that no longer operates in the country.
1+According to investigative disclosures, after receiving his flight certification, the 29-year-old al-Hammami systematically sought out airlines operating scheduled routes into Israel and even visited Israel months before the incident, ostensibly to gather target intelligence. “I tried to get accepted into all the airlines,” he stated during his interrogation. “I checked which ones flew to Tel Aviv. That is exactly why I chose flydubai. I planned the attack before I was even hired.”
Al-Hammami, who had been employed by the carrier for only eight months, reportedly plotted to execute an attack as early as July, but aborted at the time due to a personal bond with a colleague assigned to that flight crew. Nevertheless, his overarching scheme to crash a civilian airliner on Israeli soil remained active. “The dream was to crash at Ben Gurion Airport,” he reportedly told investigators during questioning.
1+Another contingency he actively weighed was a deliberate crash into the Azrieli Towers complex in Tel Aviv, mirroring the 9/11 attacks in the United States. Investigators suspect he sought to execute the dive at extreme speed, aiming to deny the Israeli Air Force sufficient operational time to scramble fighter jets and intercept the hijacked airliner. At this stage, interrogators assess that al-Hammami operated as a “lone wolf” rather than under operational commands issued directly by an organized terror cell. The investigation into his background, communications, and motives remains ongoing in the United Arab Emirates.