FlyDubai Hires Pilot Flagged for Extremism Before Ax Attack

Aspen —A $14 million project. Twelve units. No, wait. That’s the housing story I’m covering next door. This one is simpler, and significantly more terrifying.

How did a pilot flagged for extremist views end up in the cockpit of a plane with 182 passengers?

That is the question the Vail Daily asked, and it’s the one keeping me up at night. Let’s do the math.

Hamam al-Hammami, the Omani national accused of attacking the captain of a FlyDubai flight with a crash ax, had already been grounded. According to the report, Oman Air barred him from flying due to concerns about his extremist views. He was moved to an administrative job. On paper, that should have been the red flag. In practice, FlyDubai hired him.

Here is where the bureaucratic jargon gets translated into plain English. The Vail Daily reported that a Gulf diplomat said al-Hammami underwent "standard security checks" before being hired. But — and this is a big but — those checks apparently focused on whether he had been convicted of criminal charges. They did not go deeper into examining his background for potential signs of radicalization.

So, the man flagged by his own country’s airline for extremism passed through FlyDubai’s vetting process because the system was looking for a criminal record, not a radicalized mind.

The stakes? The flight was bound for Israel. Israel and Oman do not have formal diplomatic relations. Israel has agreements with foreign carriers to keep pilots of nations without diplomatic ties from flying there. Al-Hammami slipped through.

The UAE, which is leading the investigation, called the incident a "terrorist attack." The plane was plummeting. Passengers rushed in and subdued him. No one died, but the near-miss was catastrophic.

Security agencies from four regional countries are now working to establish his motives, aided by the United States and other Western governments. The Gulf diplomat noted that the investigation hasn’t found any connections with militant groups, suggesting al-Hammami acted on his own.

He was born in the UAE, his mother is Syrian, and he obtained Omani nationality. A complex identity, a complex history.

The bottom line for locals? Well, we’re not flying FlyDubai to Dubai right now. But the lesson is about vetting. When we hire, do we look for the criminal record, or do we look for the radicalized view? For context, this happened a week before the anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Timing matters.

The numbers don’t lie. One pilot. One ax. 182 lives. And a vetting process that missed the mark.