Student Recounts Disabling Hijacker on Flydubai Flight

Adar Hayut, a medical student aboard a Flydubai flight, described the harrowing moments he neutralized and restrained the Omani co-pilot, Maam Al-Hami, who was identified as the terrorist. Hayut recounted the difficulty of processing the event, stating, "It is very hard to digest, as a passenger on the plane, that in a situation where luck was involved, I am alive, and in any other situation I would be dead." He explained that he treated pilot Smit Machaer, who was severely wounded by Al-Hami's stabbing, and that due to the need to restrain the attacker, who was still on his feet, Hayut took zip ties from another passenger and secured Al-Hami to prevent further resistance or escape.

An investigation in the Emirates has unequivocally confirmed that the other foreign pilots did not cooperate with the terrorist at any stage. Hayut also shared that there was a debate among passengers about whether to kill the hijacker, noting, "We were afraid he had a knife, we debated whether we needed to kill him, but we didn't really have a way to do it." Additional official data revealed that dozens of Omani citizens have entered Israel on tourist visas in recent years: 10 in 2022, 29 in 2023, 9 in 2024, and 11 in 2025, along with others this current year. Concerns have been raised that some of these individuals might be aircrew, potentially violating aviation agreement terms that require aircrews from Oman to hold diplomatic passports from countries with relations with Israel. The Ministry of Transport acknowledged, "The working assumption is that this did not happen, but we cannot say so with certainty."