FlyDubai pilot who tried to crash plane identified as Omani

Alisa Odenheimer, Paul Wallace and Kateryna Kadabashy, Bloomberg News on Oct 1, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

The FlyDubai pilot who tried to crash the Boeing Co. 737 carrying 174 passengers mainly from Israel was Omani, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, raising questions how he gained permission to fly despite a strict security screening process.

The revelation about the co-pilot’s nationality will put pressure on the airline and security forces to explain how he ended up on the Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight despite Oman and Israel having no diplomatic relations, restricting the access of their citizens to each other’s countries.

Netanyahu made the comments in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, a day after the near-catastrophe took place. The prime minister said the attacker underwent radical Islamist indoctrination, but cautioned it was too early to say if he had any links with Iran.

“We have constraints regarding pilots from countries that don’t have diplomatic relations,” Netanyahu said in the interview. “So obviously, he was able to go through that. So there’s a loophole there, how to make sure that we screen pilots in advance.”

President Donald Trump said the United States is looking into whether the FlyDubai pilot has ties to Iran.

“We’re working on it right now,” Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn on Thursday. “I would say the answer, based on what I’m hearing, is yes, but we’re working on it right now.”

Neither the airline nor the United Arab Emirates government has announced the nationality or identity of the pilot. Netanyahu previously identified the other pilot, who was stabbed and gravely injured, as Indian.

Oman’s government didn’t immediately respond to a Bloomberg request for comment.

The attacking pilot is currently in Saudi Arabia and is set to be moved to the UAE, which is leading the investigation, Netanyahu’s spokesman, Doron Spielman, said. Israel will be part of the investigation and is conducting its own inquiry, he added.

“We’re right now vetting all the pilots that are flying into Israel,” Spielman said.

Yossi Shelley, Israel’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, was asked in a Kan radio interview on Thursday about the possible oversights that led to the FlyDubai incident.

“This was certainly an aberration,” Shelley said. “Something didn’t work here. The outcome is terrible. It could have been far more terrible. This has to be checked — why a pilot with such citizenship came out here?”

FlyDubai said in response to queries that “the circumstances surrounding the incident are still being investigated,” and that it had no additional comment.

According to earlier comments by Netanyahu, the attacker stabbed or hit the other pilot with an ax before being overwhelmed by passengers who rushed to the scene of the carnage. The aircraft eventually made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

The UAE attorney-general has ordered the creation of an investigation team. The group will look into the incident to examine the circumstances and motives behind the flight-deck altercation, and to verify whether it was linked to any terrorist activity, according to a statement.

_____

(With assistance from Dan Williams and Josh Wingrove.)

_____