The case of Flydubai’s co-pilot, Hammam Al-Hamami, revealed a structural security vulnerability that goes beyond the cockpit, after it was revealed that he studied aviation management in Britain remotely for three years within a program that included security, aircraft maintenance, and the subject of “terrorism in the aviation industry,” without being subject to the security vetting mechanisms imposed on foreign students.
According to a report prepared by journalist Eli Leon in the Israeli newspaper “Maariv”, based on what was revealed by the British newspaper “The Telegraph”, the 29-year-old accused, who was involved in an attempt to hijack a passenger plane that was heading to Israel, managed to evade the security scrutiny supervised by the British Foreign Ministry.
Over the course of three years, Al-Hamami studied to obtain a preliminary university degree in aviation management from the British University of Buckinghamshire at a cost of about 16 thousand pounds sterling annually. This is an academic path that included subjects in logistics, security, aircraft maintenance, and even “terrorism in the aviation industry,” which allowed him to bypass the strict scrutiny system.
The Telegraph explained that Al-Hamami was not subjected to extensive security checks through the “Academic Technology Approval” program, which is designed to vet the backgrounds of international students in “sensitive” specializations such as aeronautical engineering and aircraft maintenance. This is due to the limited application of the program to postgraduate students and those studying in person in Britain, while Al-Hamami joined the program via distance learning from his home in the Omani capital, Muscat.
Despite Al-Hamami publishing hateful and misogynistic posts during his studies and supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine on social media platforms, he was able to successfully complete his studies in 2023.
The professor specializing in security affairs, Anthony Gless, described the situation as a “loophole” exploited by foreign students, stressing that a basic examination of Al-Hamami’s background would have revealed data that would have ensured his immediate removal from studies.
In the wake of these data, demands from politicians and experts in Britain escalated to tighten the procedures, as the Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, called on universities to conduct strict background checks for students through electronic programs, in anticipation of using British certificates to influence others.
For its part, the University of Buckinghamshire, through its spokesman, defended the program, stressing that it does not require any practical flight training or granting students access to restricted areas, and noting that functional verification of workers’ backgrounds falls exclusively on the airline companies.
The facts of the case go back to Al-Hamami being accused of attacking the flight commander, the Indian Smith Macher, with an emergency ax inside the cockpit of a “Boeing” plane. Despite his injury, the pilot succeeded in opening the door, enabling the passengers to control the attacker and save the 182 people on board the plane.
In the same context, Israeli estimates suggest that Al-Hamami acted as a “lone wolf” influenced by jihadist content on the Internet, in parallel with the Australian authorities beginning to investigate the possibility that his extremist path began during his studies there between 2015 and 2017.
These academic data raise new questions about the Flydubai case, shifting the course of investigations from merely the circumstances of reaching the cockpit, to how to pass years of study and work in a highly sensitive sector without being monitored by security systems.
