Another post reportedly showed an AI-generated image showing Islam’s three holiest sites in Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem, with a poem in the background speaking of rejecting humiliation, not fearing death, and defending one’s dignity.
However, the authenticity of the account could not be verified. It is also not clear if another person made the posts from Alhammami’s account or if they were scheduled. “They all refused. Despite the ban, Alhammami was hired by flydubai – the Dubai-based airline – allowing him to fly on the sensitive route connecting the United Arab Emirates and Israel. Reports also suggested that Alhammami had intended to crash the flydubai aircraft in Israel. Sources with ABC News suggested that a threadbare internet biography page believed to belong to Alhammami indicated that he had studied aviation management at a British university – Buckinghamshire New University – and engineering at an Australian university. Despite being injured, the Indian pilot unlocked the cockpit door, allowing crew and passengers to intervene and overpower the attacker.
Then my mother then told them, ‘my son is a pilot’, and then they all suddenly agreed,” a post from February 2022 reportedly said. The report said that while Alhammami had completed a three-year distance-learning course and graduated with a degree in aviation management in 2023, he did not take pilot training at the university. Alhammami, earlier this week, tried to sabotage the flydubai aircraft, which was carrying over 170 passengers, including 24 children, and later stabbed Captain Smit Machchhar , who tried to stop him. As the plane, cruising at about 34,000 feet, began dropping at roughly 23,000 feet per minute before reaching about 15,600 feet, two trainee pilots sitting at the back took over the aircraft and diverted it to Saudi Arabia, where it landed safely.
Alhammami’s now-deleted X account showed him as “deeply religious” and “misogynistic”, reported CNN. The co-pilot had discussed the difficulties his mother faced in finding him a prospective wife who would accept his conditions that she wear a ‘niqab’, a face covering, and stop working after marriage, according to the report. Another X post allegedly made by Alhammami reportedly spoke about how mixed-gender workplaces have a “corrupting” effect on women. “How many respectable, religious girls have been ruined in mixed-gender work environments and manipulated?” the post reportedly read.
Both the Indian pilot – who is praised as a ‘hero’ globally, and the accused co-pilot were taken to a hospital.
