Hamam al-Hammami, 29, is understood to have studied with L3 Airline Academy – LinkedIn
The suspected Flydubai hijacker trained to become a professional pilot in Britain, The Telegraph can reveal.
Hamam al-Hammami, 29, the Omani pilot accused of attempting to hijack a passenger jet bound for Israel, is understood to have attended one of the UK’s biggest flight schools between 2018 and 2019.
The Telegraph understands that he trained with L3 Airline Academy, a pilot-training company with centres in England that has since become part of Acron Aviation.
Hammami is believed to have trained at one or more of the company’s centres in England, which include major training facilities in Southampton and Bournemouth, as well as a simulator centre near Gatwick.
The pilot is being held in Abu Dhabi after the Flydubai incident on Wednesday in what authorities have described as an attempted jihadist terror attack.
Hammami is accused of attacking the aircraft’s pilot with an axe before the crew and passengers fought back.
Israeli reports have suggested Hammami planned to seize the aircraft and crash it into a target in Tel Aviv in a plan modelled on the Sept 11 attacks.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by L3 Airline Academy or its successor companies, including Acron Aviation. The firm has said it will assist the authorities in any inquiry.
The pilot training of the suspected hijacker also took him to New Zealand. On Tuesday, New Zealand police confirmed that Hammami had been granted a six-month student visa to undertake flight training there between November 2018 and May 2019 “for a UK-based company no longer operating in New Zealand”.
Deleted social media account
At the time, L3 Airline Academy provided a training programme linking its centres in Britain with a flying school in Hamilton, New Zealand.
The Telegraph revealed on Saturday that Hammami advocated violence against women and called for severe religious punishments on a now-deleted social media account, while completing a distance-learning aviation management degree at Buckinghamshire New University between 2020 and 2023.
The Telegraph can also reveal that the deleted Twitter account @PilotHamam, which used the name “Hamam Al Hammami” and contained posts about women being “stomped on” and given a “pre-emptive slap”, appears to detail his training and life in Britain.
The now-deleted Twitter account included remarks about experiences with ‘European feminists’
Writing in 2022, Hammami said he had “studied in Australia, Britain and New Zealand for five years”.
He studied engineering at RMIT University in Melbourne from 2015 to 2017 but left without completing the qualification, before going on to undertake professional pilot training.
In that same post from 2022, Hammami described his years studying overseas as “the golden years of my religious commitment”, and claimed he became less observant when he returned to Oman. In other posts he recalled encounters with women in Britain in which he advocated strict Islamic expectations about marriage and dress.
The account also appeared to show that he spent around five months living in London, although it is unclear whether the stay coincided with his pilot training.
In one post, he recalled how “one of my colleagues, during the training in Britain” had met a Spanish woman and told her: “I want my wife to wear the niqab and not work after marriage.”
In another exchange, Hammami claimed that he stipulated a woman would have to “convert to Islam and wear a hijab” if they were to marry.
At the time Hammami was training, cadets on the company’s programmes could undertake theoretical ground school in Southampton before travelling to New Zealand for their core flying training, and then returning to Britain for more advanced stages.
In another post, Hammami stipulated his wife would have to ‘convert to Islam and wear a hijab’
One account from a cadet who trained with the company between 2016 and 2018 described spending six months at ground school near Southampton, followed by eight months of flight training in Hamilton. The cadet then returned to Britain for more advanced training at Bournemouth and Southampton.
L3 also had a relationship with Oman Air, where Hammami worked until February 2025.
The airline had previously named the aviation school as one of five internationally recognised institutions whose graduates it would consider for its pilot recruitment programme.
It has since been reported that Oman Air removed Hammami from flight training because of concerns about his radical views and transferred him to another role.
Acron Aviation declined to say whether Hammami had trained with the company, saying it did not publicly disclose whether individuals were current or former students.
A spokesman said: “We were saddened to hear of this incident, and our thoughts are with everyone affected. As a matter of policy, we do not publicly comment on whether any individual is or has been a student with us.
“We will, of course, assist the relevant authorities, if necessary, in any way we can as they investigate this incident.”