A senior official in the United Arab Emirates told CBS News on Sunday the identities of two additional pilots aboard the Fly Dubai terror flight FZ1073 to Tel Aviv—the ones who ultimately landed the plane after the dramatic incident. According to the report, one is a New Zealand citizen, and the other is a South African citizen.
1+There were four crew members total on board: the captain, an Indian citizen, and the first officer, the attacker Muammar al-Hamami—an Omani citizen. According to a reconstruction published earlier today in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the incident began in the early morning hours in Dubai, when 174 passengers, including 27 children, boarded the Boeing 737 MAX bound for Tel Aviv.
The flight took off at 07:05 after a routine briefing, and initially proceeded normally, climbing to a cruising altitude of about 34,000 feet and engaging autopilot. Around 09:15, the attacker, serving as first officer, asked to get up to pray, and after several minutes, according to the report, attacked the captain with an emergency axe. During the violent struggle, the captain tried to fight him off and open the cockpit door, while the armored door—locked from the inside—prevented entry from outside.
It later emerged that two additional pilots who were on the flight as passengers—serving as backup crew—were the ones who intervened at the critical stage of the incident. After entering the cockpit, together with other passengers, they managed to take control of the situation and stabilize the aircraft.
1+The reconstruction also reveals that at one point the autopilot disconnected and the plane plunged at a rate of about 16,000 feet in less than a minute, at an unusual speed of about 970 km/h. Analysis of videos from inside the passenger cabin revealed a disturbing finding that emergency lights came on during the flight, a detail that could indicate possible engine shutdown—a theory still being examined and not officially confirmed.
The incident ended when the plane landed safely after an emergency route was established, and the first officer was neutralized and handed over to authorities. The international investigation continues, centered on the question of al-Hamami’s motives and whether he acted alone or as part of a broader entity—though according to the CBS report, the current assessment is that this was the action of a lone attacker with no proven organizational affiliation.