Level 1 — Absolute Beginner

On September 30, a plane flew from Dubai to Tel Aviv. There were 172 people on board.

The copilot attacked the captain with an axe. The captain was hurt. He fought back and opened the cockpit door.

Passengers held the copilot down. Two other pilots were on the plane as travellers. They took the controls and landed in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

Now investigators say the copilot wanted to crash the plane into Ben Gurion Airport. Nobody died. Two crew members went to hospital.

plane

A machine with wings that flies people from place to place.

copilot

The second pilot, who helps the captain fly the plane.

captain

The pilot who is in charge of the plane.

axe

A tool with a sharp metal head, used for cutting.

passenger

A person who travels on a plane but does not work on it.

cockpit

The small room at the front of a plane where the pilots sit.

land

To bring a plane down to the ground safely.

investigator

A person whose job is to find out what happened.

Level 2 — Elementary

Flydubai Flight FZ-1073 left Dubai for Tel Aviv on September 30 with 172 passengers and crew. As the Boeing 737 came close to Israeli airspace, the copilot picked up the emergency axe that every cockpit carries and attacked the captain.

The captain was stabbed, but he kept fighting and managed to unlock the cockpit door. Passengers rushed in and held the copilot down. Two pilots who were flying as ordinary travellers went into the cockpit and took the controls.

The plane dropped suddenly during the struggle, and Israeli fighter jets were sent up while controllers tried to understand what was happening. In the end the jet made an emergency landing at Tabuk in Saudi Arabia. No passengers were badly hurt, and two crew members were taken to hospital.

Israeli reports published on October 4 and 5 say the copilot, Hamam al Hamami of Oman, wanted to crash the aircraft into Ben Gurion Airport. Investigators believe he acted alone. He has been moved to the United Arab Emirates for questioning by Israeli, Emirati and Saudi officials.

airspace

The sky above a country, which that country controls.

emergency

A sudden dangerous situation that needs fast action.

stab

To push a sharp object into someone's body.

unlock

To open something that was locked.

struggle

A hard physical fight between people.

controller

A person on the ground who guides planes by radio.

questioning

The act of asking someone many questions, often by police.

officials

People who work for a government and have authority.

Level 3 — Intermediate

What first looked like a violent argument in a cockpit now looks like one of the most serious attempted attacks on civil aviation in years. Israeli media reported over the weekend that Hamam al Hamami, the Omani copilot of flydubai Flight FZ-1073, intended to crash the Boeing 737 into Ben Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv on September 30, when 172 passengers and crew were on board.

According to the accounts that have emerged, al Hamami seized the crash axe stored in the cockpit and stabbed the captain as the aircraft approached Israeli airspace. The wounded captain fought him off for long enough to release the cockpit door, and passengers then pinned the copilot to the floor while two pilots travelling as ordinary passengers took over the controls. The aircraft lost altitude sharply before the replacement crew stabilised it and diverted to Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

Investigators have also begun to examine how al Hamami came to be in a cockpit at all. He trained and flew with Oman Air, where monitoring reportedly found that he had visited radical websites, after which he was moved to desk duties. He resigned around 2024 and joined flydubai, which did not check his record with the Omani authorities. Israeli officials say he appears to have operated as a lone attacker, and reports claim he abandoned a similar plan in July at the last moment.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the attack as the product of radical Islamist indoctrination, while Defence Minister Israel Katz called it an attempted jihadist terror attack. President Trump has suggested that Iran may have had some connection, a claim Israeli investigators have not confirmed. The copilot was transferred to the United Arab Emirates, where Israeli, Emirati and Saudi officials are questioning him, and airlines across the region are now reviewing how pilots are screened.

civil aviation

The part of flying that carries ordinary passengers and cargo, not military flights.

seize

To take hold of something suddenly and with force.

divert

To change a flight's route and land somewhere other than the planned destination.

altitude

The height of an aircraft above the ground.

stabilise

To bring something back under steady control.

indoctrination

The process of making someone accept a set of beliefs without question.

screen

To check someone's background carefully before trusting them with a job.

lone attacker

A person who carries out an attack without help from an organised group.

Level 4 — Advanced

For four days the attack aboard flydubai Flight FZ-1073 was treated as a shocking but contained act of violence: a copilot who turned on his captain somewhere over the desert, a diversion, two hospitalised crew members, and 172 people who walked away. Reporting published in Israel over the weekend recast the episode entirely. According to those accounts, Hamam al Hamami, an Omani first officer, did not simply attack a colleague on September 30. He intended to drive a Boeing 737 into the terminals of Ben Gurion Airport, the single busiest point of entry into Israel, and the only reason he did not is that the man sitting beside him refused to lose consciousness.

The sequence, as it has been pieced together, turned on improvisation rather than procedure. Al Hamami reached for the crash axe that regulations require every flight deck to carry, a tool designed for escape rather than assault, and used it on the captain as the aircraft neared Israeli airspace. Bleeding, the captain held him off long enough to release the reinforced cockpit door that was installed across the industry precisely to keep attackers out. Passengers restrained the copilot in the aisle while two off duty pilots, aboard by coincidence, slid into the seats and arrested a steep descent before diverting to Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

The uncomfortable questions now concern the years before the flight rather than the minutes during it. Al Hamami had been a pilot at Oman Air, where internal monitoring reportedly flagged his visits to radical websites and prompted a transfer to ground duties. He resigned around 2024 and was hired by flydubai, which never asked Omani authorities why a trained pilot had stopped flying. Aviation security since 2001 has been built around the assumption that the threat boards the aircraft through the cabin. This case suggests that the more expensive vulnerability may be the hiring file, and regional carriers have begun revisiting how flight crew records cross borders.

Politically, the incident lands in an already combustible setting. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attributed the attack to radical Islamist indoctrination, Defence Minister Israel Katz called it an attempted jihadist terror attack, and President Trump floated a possible Iranian hand that Israeli investigators have so far declined to endorse, describing al Hamami instead as a lone actor who reportedly aborted a comparable plan in July. He is being questioned in the United Arab Emirates by Israeli, Emirati and Saudi officials, an unusual three way arrangement that is itself a measure of how much the region's aviation links now depend on a shared interest in keeping cockpits secure.

contained

Kept within limits so that it does not spread or grow worse.

recast

To present something in a completely different way.

first officer

The formal title of a copilot, the second in command on a flight deck.

improvisation