A picture of Al-Zawahiri and extremist comments...a new Flydubai co-pilot

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While investigations are still ongoing in the UAE with Hammam Al-Hammami, the co-pilot of the Flydubai flight that was subjected last Wednesday to an attempted attack that almost led to the death of about 180 people, Al-Hammami’s publications revealed signs and proof of his extremism.

After the failed attack on the plane, two posts appeared on Al-Hamami’s personal account on the LinkedIn platform. One of the posts included a picture of Ayman al-Zawahiri, who assumed leadership of Al-Qaeda after the killing of Osama bin Laden.

One of the posts, about 9 hours after the failed attack, also showed a video clip of Israeli aircraft, followed by displaying pictures that included a suicide bomber and Al-Zawahiri.

While it is not clear who published these posts or whether they were previously scheduled for publication, especially since the LinkedIn account was later suspended, according to what CNN reported.

Previous comments by Al-Hamami on X, under the name @pilothamam, also showed extremist thinking against women, and welcomed violence and beating of women when necessary.

In one discussion, he wrote on his VX account addressing a woman: “I will stomp on your head, wipe the floor with you, make you an example to others, and then release you.”

In another post, he appeared to side with Russia while defending violence against women, commenting on a discussion about a man hitting a woman, saying, “He gave her a pre-emptive slap in the face for redefining her borders, just as Russia slapped Ukraine for redrawing its borders.”

He also considered in one of his comments that women have become more daring because they are “safe from punishment,” and added that in some regions of the Middle East, if a woman angers her husband, “she falls asleep to a slap and wakes up to a slap.”

Investigations so far have shown that the suspect acted alone, and did not have any ties to Iran, according to what two American officials explained to the New York Times.

Al-Hamami, 29 years old, born to an Omani father and a Syrian mother, faces charges of attempting to carry out a terrorist act, by using the emergency ax on board the Boeing 737 MAX to attack the Indian pilot, Smit Machhar.