A Flydubai flight carrying Israeli passengers from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Israel diverted to Saudi Arabia on Sept. 30 after one pilot stabbed another and apparently tried to crash the aircraft, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
The aircraft, operating as flight FZ 1073 from Dubai to Ben Gurion Airport, landed safely in Tabuk, in northwestern Saudi Arabia, after a passenger and crew members intervened, Netanyahu said in a Sept. 30 video statement.
The co-pilot accused of carrying out the stabbing was arrested and was being questioned by Saudi authorities, Netanyahu said, adding that all passengers were out of danger.
Flight FZ 1073, a Boeing 737 Max 8, dropped roughly 16,000 feet during the incident. At the time of the incident, there were 174 passengers on board, most of whom were Israelis.
Flydubai confirmed that an altercation occurred in the cockpit and said on-duty crew members secured the aircraft, diverted it, and landed safely.
The airline said that all passengers and crew were safe and accounted for, and that a formal investigation has been launched to determine the “underlying reasons and motives” behind the incident.
The passengers from flight FZ 1073 were later transported to Israel on the evening of Sept. 30 on a different flight.
Israeli security officials told Epoch Magazine Israel that preliminary investigations, including witness testimony and intelligence checks, had led authorities to treat the incident as terrorism.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz described the incident as an attempted “jihadist terrorist attack” that was thwarted by several Israeli passengers, who overpowered the assailant and returned control of the plane to the crew, according to The Times of Israel.
Katz said that a preliminary probe indicates that the attacker’s sole objective was to crash the plane with all passengers onboard.
Netanyahu Describes Attempt to Crash Plane
Netanyahu said the incident was extremely serious and that he had spoken with an Israeli passenger who helped stop the attack.
“During the flight, as they approached the country, one of the pilots stabbed the second pilot, and apparently tried to crash the plane with everyone on board,” Netanyahu said.
The passenger told him that the aircraft went into a spin and began to dive, he said.
“He told me that, somehow or other, he managed to break into the cockpit with one of the crew members, and that together they neutralized the stabbing pilot while he was trying to sabotage the plane’s systems,” Netanyahu said.
Additional flight crew entered the cockpit and stabilized the aircraft, he said.
“I salute these heroes, who displayed exceptional resourcefulness and courage. They saved many lives. They prevented a huge disaster,” Netanyahu said.
Yaniv Hayoun, identified as one of the passengers who helped neutralize the rogue co-pilot who attempted to crash the airplane, told The Free Press that he had realized that he had to do something to help save his family and the other passengers on the airplane.
“Someone screamed that there had been a stabbing, and then the plane started losing altitude and control, leaning from one side to another,” he said.
“I ran toward the cockpit. The plane went into a steep dive, and we all went flying as I was trying to approach the cockpit.”
Hayoun described the “complete chaos” that ensued as he fought the co-pilot, put him in a chokehold, and removed him from the plane’s cockpit. He then returned to the cockpit and pulled back on the controls to level the airplane before another pilot came in and took over.
The passenger said he remained in the cockpit for approximately 10 minutes before helping other Israeli passengers guard the co-pilot who had attempted to crash the airplane.
Following the incident, Netanyahu said he had instructed Israeli security services to prepare for additional potential threats.
Emergency Diversion, Cockpit Struggle
Publicly available flight-tracking information showed that the aircraft transmitted an emergency alert before landing in Tabuk.
According to Flightradar24, about 2 1/2 hours after departing Dubai, the aircraft descended from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet within a minute. It then circled near the Jordanian border before landing in Tabuk about an hour later.
Passenger Naama Bershadski told reporters that she recalled thinking, “We’re going to die,” as she prayed during the incident.
A screengrab from Flightradar24 shows a Flydubai flight to Israel that was diverted to Saudi Arabia on Sept. 30, 2026. (Flightradar24.com/Handout via Reuters)
“We’re on the flight from Dubai. We took control of the situation; there was an attacker with a knife who stabbed one of the pilots,” the passenger, identified by Channel 10 as Yitzhak Lieber, said in the video. “A few of us just jumped in and pulled him out of the cockpit.”
Lieber said one pilot was seriously injured and another appeared to have suffered less serious injuries but was managing to land the aircraft.
“The attacker has been neutralized,” he said.
Netanyahu commended the injured pilot, identified as Capt. Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, as a “true hero” in a statement on social media.
“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,” he wrote.
The airline and Netanyahu’s office did not provide an injury count or identify a suspect in their statements. Flydubai said it would provide further updates as additional confirmed details become available.
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that he had spoken with Netanyahu “at length” about the airplane incident on Sept. 30.
Trump said it appeared that the co-pilot on the Flydubai flight was “perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack job” who “stabbed the pilot.” He added that the injured pilot was in “very bad shape.”
The United Arab Emirates has become a popular destination for Israeli tourists since the two countries normalized diplomatic relations in 2020.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the name of the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
