Niqab-wearing wife, no mixed-gender workplaces: flydubai's Omani co-pilot’s posts reveal hardline views

The Omani flydubai co-pilot is facing growing scrutiny as his social media activity has come under the spotlight following the incident where he allegedly stabbed his colleague, Captain Smit Machchhar, and also attempted to crash the plane with 174 passengers onboard on September 30.

This screengrab shows passengers inside the rerouted flydubai flight FZ 1073, ahead of its departure to Tel Aviv from Saudi Arabia's Tabuk airport. (AFP)His deleted X (formerly Twitter) account indicates that he was deeply religious and misogynistic, CNN reported.

The pilot, identified by Saudi media and CNN as Omani national Hamam al-Hammami, was reportedly fired from Oman's national airline last year amid concerns over his alleged extremist views.

The accused pilot, whom Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called ‘radicalised’, allegedly posted about mixed-gender workplaces having a corrupting effect on women.

“How many respectable, religious girls have been ruined in mixed-gender work environments and manipulated?” a post from January 2022 said, CNN reported.

He also discussed the difficulties his mother faced in finding him prospective bride willing to accept his conditions, including wearing a niqab and not working after marriage.

“They all refused. Then my mother told them, ‘My son is a pilot,’ and they all suddenly agreed,” al-Hammami reportedly said in post in February 2022.

al-Hammami was dismissed from Oman's national airline last year following concerns over his alleged extremist views, CNN reported citing two sources. He was reportedly born in the United Arab Emirates to an Omani father and Syrian mother.

His LinkedIn profile, which is now deleted, also said that he worked with Oman Air for seven years and left the job in February 2025 after which he worked with the Royal Air Maroc between June 2025 and January 2026.

The accused Omani co-pilot was reportedly removed from flight training over his radical views and was given another role at Oman’s national airline.

Notably, only two posts were made from his LinkedIn account, both hours after the Wednesday's foiled crash bid of the flydubai plane.

The first post showed a series of clips filmed in the cockpits of a Boeing 737 Max aircraft, similar to the one that he was aboard on Wednesday which he allegedly tried to crash. The video also showed planes from El Al, as well as one from Arkia, another Israeli airline.

The video reportedly ends with a photograph of Ayman al-Zawahiri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as al Qaeda's leader. It also features images of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, the al Qaeda-linked suicide bomber responsible for a 2009 attack that killed nine people, including seven CIA officers and contractors.

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