{"id":621908,"date":"2026-10-06T03:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T03:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/621908\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T03:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T03:44:14","slug":"alleged-flydubai-hijacker-spent-six-months-in-nz-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/621908\/","title":{"rendered":"Alleged FlyDubai hijacker spent six months in NZ, police say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  [&amp;_p]:tit-sub-xl tit-sub-xl md:[&amp;_p]:d-tit-sub-xl md:d-tit-sub-xl mb-[1.3rem]\">A FlyDubai co-pilot who allegedly stabbed his colleague in an attempt to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/10\/05\/questions-swirl-about-how-flydubai-attacker-evaded-detection\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">seize and crash an Israel-bound aircraft<\/a> spent almost six months in New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Omani national Hammam al-Hammami is currently in custody in the United Arab Emirates following the bloody attack. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">New Zealand-trained pilot <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/10\/03\/wounded-flydubai-captain-recounts-fight-to-save-passengers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Smit Machchhar was seriously injured<\/a> in the attack but managed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/10\/04\/insider-threat-what-the-flydubai-attack-reveals-about-aviation-security\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">open the cockpit door<\/a>, allowing passengers to enter and restrain the attacker as the Boeing 737 descended more than 4000m, witnesses and Israeli authorities said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Machchhar trained at Mainland Air in Dunedin for about 18 months in 2008 before returning to India to continue his aviation career. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text-greyDarkFaded\">The Omani national stabbed the pilot and tried to bring down the plane. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Assistant Commissioner Michael Johnson confirmed the co-pilot who allegedly attacked Machchhar spent six months in New Zealand on a student visa while finishing part of his flight training. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;Immigration records show he arrived in New Zealand on 30 November 2018 and departed 23 May 2019, having spent 175 days in the country,&#8221; Johnson said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;Police can confirm the co-pilot was in New Zealand to complete a portion of his flight training for a UK-based company, no longer operating in New Zealand.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Johnson said police were currently reviewing records and undertaking inquiries with regard to the time he spent in New Zealand. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Meanwhile, Australian security agencies are investigating the Omani pilot\u2019s time in Australia around a decade ago, Australian Federal Police said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">A police statement on Monday said a joint counterterrorism team, including federal and state police and Australia\u2019s domestic intelligence agency, \u201cis investigating the man\u2019s links to Australia\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">\u2013 additional reporting by Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A FlyDubai co-pilot who allegedly stabbed his colleague in an attempt to seize and crash an Israel-bound aircraft&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5107,111,43,139,69,31451],"class_list":["post-621908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-middle-east","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}