Passengers Stop Omani Co-Pilot After He Stabs Captain, Tries to Bring Down Tel Aviv-Bound Jet

Israeli officials say an Omani co-pilot stabbed the Indian captain of a Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flydubai jet Wednesday morning and tried to crash the aircraft with more than 170 people aboard. Passengers and extra crew overpowered him in the cockpit after the Boeing 737 MAX 8 plunged more than 14,000 feet in seconds.

Flydubai flight FZ1073 left Dubai International at 3:05 a.m. GMT bound for Ben Gurion Airport. The jet carried 174 passengers, most of them Israeli, including children. It was cruising near 34,000 feet over northwestern Saudi Arabia when the struggle began.

Israeli officials identified the attacker as the co-pilot, an Omani national who had worked at the airline for less than a year. His name has not been released. The captain was Smit Machchhar, an Indian national who joined flydubai in June 2022 after 11 years at SpiceJet and more than 9,750 hours on Boeing 737 aircraft.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said preliminary information showed the co-pilot’s objective was to crash the plane. Katz called the episode an “attempted jihadist terrorist attack.” Israel’s Foreign Ministry briefed ambassadors that the stabbing was an attempted terrorist attack against Israelis, the United Arab Emirates, and the Abraham Accords.

Flight-tracking data from Flightradar24 showed altitude fluctuations starting about 5:21 a.m. GMT. The aircraft then dropped more than 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds. It later transmitted squawk 7700, the general emergency code, then 7500, the code for unlawful interference, before reverting.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said one pilot stabbed the other and “apparently tried to crash the plane with everyone on board.” He quoted a passenger who said the jet “entered a tailspin and began to dive” and that the co-pilot was “trying to sabotage the plane’s systems.” An Israeli official told Channel 12 one pilot “tried to do 9/11.”

Machchhar fought the attacker after being stabbed. Netanyahu spokesman Doron Spielman said the wounded captain, bloodied and on the cockpit floor, used “the last moments of his energy” to unlock the cockpit door. Passengers who had already run to the front of the cabin then entered.

They found Machchhar on the floor and the co-pilot standing over the control panel, striking it. Passenger Almog Italie said the drop felt like “massive turbulence” before he realized a fight was underway in the cockpit. Another passenger, Asaf Rajuan, helped restrain the co-pilot and later appeared with a bloodied forehead. Netanyahu later embraced passenger Yaniv Hayun at Ben Gurion and called him a hero for breaking into the cockpit. Hayun said he put the attacker in a chokehold and pulled him out.

Jerusalem Post reporting said as many as four wounded passengers helped restrain and tie him. Two additional flydubai pilots riding as reserve crew then took the controls. The airline confirmed that reserve crew landed the jet.

The aircraft briefly crossed into Jordan, then turned back into Saudi airspace. Israel scrambled fighter jets after the emergency codes. The jet landed at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk at about 6:45 to 6:58 a.m. GMT. Photos later showed damage to the rudder.

Tabuk airport said both pilots were hospitalized with injuries. Netanyahu said Saudi authorities arrested the co-pilot and were interrogating him. Israel is receiving information secondhand. A joint Israeli team from the Mossad, Shin Bet, IDF, and Transportation Ministry assessed the attacker as a lone actor. Motive remains under investigation.

Flydubai said the reasons for the event were unknown and warned against “premature speculation.” The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority said a security incident had been brought under control and that it was investigating. An Israeli official told Reuters the government’s working assessment was that the incident was an attempted terror attack, not a mental-health episode.

Passengers spent about eight hours on the ground in Tabuk. Saudi authorities denied permission for an Israeli rescue aircraft. Two replacement flydubai jets then flew the group to Tel Aviv. A 51-year-old man was treated in Israel for upper-body injuries and listed in mild condition. Machchhar was first described as critical, then as stable in Saudi care. The Indian embassy in Riyadh later said he was stable.

Israel temporarily closed its airspace and later reopened it. Transportation Minister Miri Regev endorsed a temporary halt of flights between the UAE and Israel. Spielman said every pilot flying into Israel would have his identity checked. Operations at Ben Gurion continued through the day. All passengers on FZ1073 were accounted for.