Passengers Halt Mid-Air Attack on Dubai-Tel Aviv Flight

For the 174 people aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073, an ordinary overnight journey from Dubai to Tel Aviv became a fight for survival two hours after take-off, when one of the pilots stabbed the other and, according to Israel’s prime minister, apparently tried to crash the aircraft. Passengers and crew working together brought the plane down safely. No one died.

The question now hanging over the investigation is who was behind the attack and why. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to Fox News, said it was too early to say whether Iran had any involvement. “It’s too early to say,” he replied when asked whether there was any indication of Iran’s role so far, adding that the attacker was “now being investigated in Saudi Arabia”.

The alleged attacker was arrested in Saudi Arabia and is expected to be transferred to the United Arab Emirates, from where the flight departed. The UAE’s chief prosecutor said on Thursday that an investigation had been launched into the incident, including whether there was any link to “terrorist” activity. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz went further, calling it an “attempted jihadist terror attack”, though he gave no details. US President Donald Trump said he had spoken with Netanyahu, and suggested it seemed the attacker was “perhaps a terrorist” or that other reasons lay behind the assault. Netanyahu also told CNN that Israel had no warning or advance intelligence about what happened on the plane.

What the public still lacks is a full account of what unfolded in the cockpit. Preliminary findings from a separate Israeli investigation suggest the alleged attacker intended to crash the plane, an Israeli security source told BBC Arabic. That investigation, led by Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad, interviewed passengers after they arrived in Tel Aviv to establish what took place on board.

The flight tracking record shows how quickly things deteriorated. Flydubai’s FZ1073 took off from Dubai International Airport at 03:05 GMT (07:05 local time), en route to Ben Gurion Airport. Two hours in, the plane plunged more than 17,000ft (5,200m), a drop reported on the tracking website Flightradar24. Minutes later it signalled an emergency code, squawk 7700, before switching to squawk 7500, which reports a hijacking. Around 20 minutes after those codes were sent, the aircraft began a manual descent for landing in Saudi Arabia, and less than an hour later it returned to squawk 7700. It landed safely at Tabuk airport.

Passengers who were on board describe extraordinary improvisation by ordinary people placed in an extraordinary situation. Yaniv Hayun said he put the attacker, who was trying to disable the plane, in a chokehold before other passengers helped pin him down. He said he “pulled the controls” of the aircraft, and after it levelled out, another pilot took over. “The pilot who was stabbed was simply very close to the door, so it was hard for us to open it,” Hayun said in a video posted on social media by the prime minister’s office. Before collapsing, the wounded pilot managed to open the door himself.

Zvika Meness, another passenger, told Israeli public broadcaster Kan News that he and others tied the attacker up “with his own zip ties and with the multimedia headphones”. “There are children and families here who have been through a very severe, highly traumatic event,” he said. Flydubai confirmed that two on-duty crew travelling as passengers on the flight landed the plane, saying “an altercation occurred in the flight deck” and the flight was “successfully secured by on-duty Flydubai crew travelling on the flight, who diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk airport”.

The wounded pilot, Indian national Capt Smit Machchhar, is in hospital in a stable condition. He has been widely praised for his conduct under attack. Netanyahu called him a “true hero”, writing on X: “Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker, preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster.” India’s leader Narendra Modi wrote that “in the face of the gravest danger and despite being seriously injured, he showed immense courage and an unwavering resolve to protect the lives of others.” Israeli President Isaac Herzog told the BBC it was “an amazing, heroic event of resilient people who work together”, adding: “There was a huge miracle and huge bravery and we are grateful to the Indian pilot who was such a hero.”

The passengers, almost all of them Israeli, were flown on to Tel Aviv on another flight later on Wednesday, where crowds greeted them with music, singing, dancing and Israeli flags. A paramedic from Israel’s ambulance service told the BBC that a number of people were “very emotional and crying as they came off the plane”.

For its part, Flydubai said its immediate priority is “to ensure the ongoing safety, health, and wellbeing of all passengers and crew members involved in this incident and support the official investigation”. The airline added that all of its flights to and from Israel will be suspended during the investigation, a decision that will affect travellers on the route until the inquiry concludes.