United withholds pilot from duty amid new review of October 7 posts

United Airlines has pulled Captain Ibrahim R. Mossallam from flying duties pending an internal review, the airline confirmed. It comes nearly three years after the same pilot was suspended over online remarks about the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023.

United did not say what prompted the new review or whether it involves more posts. The airline said only that he had been withheld from service while the review continues.

Mossallam drew public criticism in November 2023 when a Facebook post circulated in which he called the October 7 attacks "resistance by a brave people" and said they were "not unprovoked." United removed him from duty with pay and opened an investigation. He later returned to flying. Accounts differ on how long he was kept off duty, and the company has never publicly set out the findings of that investigation or explained why it let him fly again.

The case drew fresh attention this week when Israeli Channel 14 journalist Libby Blanca Alon asked why Mossallam was still serving in the cockpit. Her reporting followed the September 30, 2026 incident on flydubai flight FZ1073, in which a first officer is alleged to have attacked the captain and tried to seize control of the aircraft bound for Tel Aviv before passengers intervened. The aircraft diverted to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

Alon also reported that two United pilots travelling as passengers on a flight crewed by Mossallam gave up their first-class seats to sit in the cockpit and watch him, and that United had tried to dismiss him but was blocked by the pilots' union. Neither claim has been independently confirmed. The reporting does not name the flight, give its date or identify the two pilots, and United has not commented publicly on the allegations. Accounts suggesting Mossallam had already resumed flying after the latest removal have also been disputed.