The FlyDubai co-pilot whose alleged violent attempt to crash a flight to Israel last week and kill everyone onboard has a history of writing and sharing misogynistic remarks on social media using the rhetoric of the so-called manosphere, CBS News has found.
Many posts written and shared by Hamam al Hamami on an X account that has since been deleted used derogatory language about women espoused by misogynistic online influencers. Some of his posts included violent rhetoric. In one, he threatened to “stamp on your head, wipe the floor with you, make you an example to others, and then release you.” It is not clear if he was speaking about one person in particular, or referring to women in general.
Multiple sources familiar with the investigation into the alleged hijacking attempt told CBS News last week that al Hamami is an Omani national and was the co-pilot who attacked the plane’s captain with a cockpit emergency ax as it approached Israel on Sept. 27. Passengers and crew managed to subdue him, according to their own accounts, and an off-duty flight crew on the jet made a safe emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
An Israeli security official told CBS News authorities were investigating the possibility the incident could have been an attempted Sept. 11-style terror attack. President Trump suggested a couple of days after the incident that the co-pilot could have links to Iran, “based on what I’m hearing.”
Jack GUEZ/AFP/Getty 
The co-pilot’s posts on X, which were made between November 2021 and late October 2022, paint a picture of a man who, at least during that period, had a very skewed view of women and a low opinion of men who, in his words, “grovel” to them.
“No matter how much you grovel or ‘lick their feet,’ you can forget about ever being with them; you chose the cheap, easy route to approach the opposite sex instead of elevating your own value as a man,” he said in one post, which CBS News found an archived version of online. The posts were written in Arabic.
The Financial Times reported Wednesday that it discovered some 3,000 misogynistic messages posted or shared by al Hamami as part of an investigation, including him calling women “rotten meat.”
According to the FT, he also lauded flying as “the safest means of public transport.”
CBS News has not independently reviewed all of the posts cited by the FT.
Al Hamami’s posts mingled the rhetoric of extremist interpretations of Islam with that of the manosphere movement. The only woman he spoke of positively was his mother, whom he credited with raising him and his siblings “on religion, morals, and virtue.”
In one archived post seen by CBS News, al Hamami uses the manosphere term “simp” to describe a man “who hangs around feminist circles, licking women’s feet in hopes of gaining their approval and getting closer to them. Typically, only a low-value male resorts to this behavior, turning to foot-licking as the easiest way to ingratiate himself with women. Does this mean I have to lick women’s feet? The only woman whose feet I would kiss is my mother. As for the ‘simp,’ he has no dignity; he licks the feet of any woman — worthy or unworthy — just in hopes of getting close to one of them.”
Al Hamami said in January 2022, that he was hoping to get married and move out of his parents’ home as he neared the age of 25, but that he would only consider a woman who met very specific criteria.
He turned to a Muslim dating website in the hope of finding a woman between 18 and 23, according to the FT, and said he was seeking a “religious Saudi from a tribal background” who was willing to wear a face cover, not seek work outside the home, and to live abroad.
His failed search led him to conclude, according to the X posts viewed by FT, that most women “care primarily about money” and are “skilled at pretense.”
The posts seen by the British newspaper included more aggressive language, including the assertion that a woman’s “only obligation is to lift her legs,” and that women who seek a divorce deserve “a good thrashing.”
Israeli investigators believe the co-pilot acted as a lone wolf in the alleged hijacking attempt at the end of last month, people familiar with the matter told CBS News. He is in the United Arab Emirates, where he is undergoing interrogation by Israeli and UAE authorities.
Speaking to Fox News last week, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israel knew the co-pilot “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination,” based on “personal information” gathered during questioning. He did not offer any further information on the alleged indoctrination, but added to Fox that the attacker was “suicidal,” and that after he was subdued by other crew members and passengers, he shouted: “Kill me, kill me!”
Al Hamami worked for a short time for Oman Air, where he entered new pilot training. Surveillance by the Omani government discovered that he was visiting radical websites, the sources said. Oman Air then transferred him to an office job.
One source told CBS News that he resigned from his job at Oman Air after being placed on desk duty, and then left the airline around 2024.
At one point, sources said, al Hamami posted a video of planes belonging to Israeli flag carrier El Al airlines in Dubai with a photo at the end of the clip showing Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al Qaeda leader believed to have helped plan the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the U.S., who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2022.
Al Hamami moved to Dubai, and FlyDubai hired him without vetting him with the Omani government, the sources told CBS News.
It remains unclear how, despite his history of espousing both Islamic radicalism and misogyny — and questions over whether he should have been cleared to fly to Israel at all as an Omani national — he managed to become a pilot flying dozens of people to and from Tel Aviv.
