A Flydubai co-pilot stabbed the pilot and tried to crash the plane carrying Israelis before passengers and crew forced an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, officials said.
One pilot on a Dubai-to-Israel flight stabbed the other in the cockpit and tried to bring the jet down, passengers and Israeli leaders said, before travelers and crew fought back, diverted the aircraft, and later reached Tel Aviv.
CBS News reported that Flydubai flight 1073, a Boeing 737 Max 8, left Dubai for Israel on Wednesday and that crew members transmitted an emergency alert shortly after takeoff. Flight tracking data cited through the network’s British partner showed the plane plummeted more than 17,000 feet in two minutes around 8:21 a.m. local time.
Passenger Miryam Shira Ohayon told reporters the stabbing happened over Jordan and that the aircraft was “pretty much out of control.” She described a fight for the cockpit and a near-disaster averted only by people on board.
Ohayon said the co-pilot tried to kill the pilot and turn the flight into a suicide attack.
"The co-pilot tried to murder the pilot and basically carry out a suicide attack on the plane. It was really on the way to crashing, and it was simply the resourcefulness of many people who took control of the co-pilot and neutralized him. There was also a doctor who gave first aid, and people who treated both of them. Other than the pilot, there were no injuries, but the bigger fear was really a crash, which is exactly what he was trying to do."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack came as the plane approached Israel. He described one pilot stabbing the other and an apparent attempt to crash the aircraft with everyone aboard. Netanyahu said the attacker was under arrest and being questioned by Saudi authorities, and he instructed Israel’s security establishment to prepare for possible additional threats.
Defense Minister Israel Katz framed the episode as an attempted jihadist terror attack stopped by Israeli passengers who broke into the cockpit, overpowered the attacker, and restored control to another flight crew already on the plane.
Reuters reported Netanyahu calling it a highly severe security incident involving more than 170 Israelis. He said passengers, with a crew member, broke into the cockpit after the aircraft “entered a tailspin and began to dive” and found the co-pilot “trying to sabotage the plane’s systems.” “They saved many lives. They prevented a heavy disaster,” Netanyahu said. He ordered tighter security checks on carriers flying to Israel and said a joint investigation was planned.
Flydubai’s statement was more restrained. The airline said “an altercation occurred in the flight deck,” that on-duty Flydubai crew traveling on the flight secured the aircraft, diverted it, and landed safely in Saudi Arabia, and that “all passengers and crew are safe and accounted for.” The company said motives were unknown at that early stage, remained under formal investigation, and urged parties not to speculate while authorities gathered facts.
Breitbart noted the physical cockpit fight that forced the diversion, matching the core sequence other outlets described. The emergency landing was in Tabuk, at a civilian airport next to a Saudi military base. Saudi authorities said two crew members were hospitalized with unspecified injuries. No passengers were injured. Flydubai sent two replacement aircraft to Tabuk.
The New York Post reported that the stabbing came about two and a half hours after takeoff, at roughly 34,000 feet, and that two European relief pilots, one of them British, then stabilized the jet carrying 174 passengers for the Tabuk landing. The paper said the alleged attacker was of Omani descent and had worked at Flydubai for less than a year. Passenger video captured the chaos: one traveler said the group had subdued “the terrorists” and needed help as they approached landing; another told family a pilot was seriously hurt and headed to a hospital.
An official cited by the Associated Press said Israel scrambled warplanes during the incident, fearing a possible hijacking of a plane carrying dozens of Israeli citizens. An Israeli security official told CBS News authorities were investigating a possible attempted Sept. 11-style terror attack and whether the attacker worked alone.
Israeli sources identified the suspect as an Omani national. Fox News reported U.S. officials confirming the attacker was taken into custody on landing in Saudi Arabia, with active investigations underway in Israel and elsewhere and close coordination with Israeli counterparts. U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the work was “very active” and that Washington was coordinating closely overseas, while declining to speculate beyond what officials on the ground had already said.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir cast the episode as another warning against soft assumptions about Israel’s enemies, writing that a terrorist had planned to crash a plane and murder the 180 Israelis on board. Benny Gantz, running in upcoming Israeli elections, said it was still early to know the full sequence but that the passengers’ resourcefulness and courage under mortal danger were “exactly the stuff our people are made of.” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said the episode put the Middle East, especially Israel, on full alert and that pilots “detouring to ‘fist city’” was no ordinary experience.
The plane reached Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv shortly before 8 p.m. local time Wednesday. Passengers disembarked singing and chanting as families waited. Some Israeli travelers said they would not reboard Flydubai. Flydubai is the lower-cost sister carrier of UAE state-owned Emirates; Dubai-origin traffic to Israel has grown since the UAE normalized ties with Israel in 2020. Netanyahu had warned in recent days of escalating security threats amid ongoing operations against Iran-allied Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Names of both pilots were not released in the initial reporting. The attacker’s nationality as Omani rested on Israeli sources, without immediate public confirmation from Israeli or Saudi officials in that first wave of coverage. Exact injuries to the stabbed pilot and the two hospitalized crew members were not detailed. Flydubai kept stressing that reasons and motives were unknown pending formal investigation, even as Israeli ministers used terror and jihadist language and security officials examined a possible lone-actor Sept. 11-style plot.
What is not in dispute is the sequence passengers, flight data, and multiple governments described: a cockpit stabbing, a violent fight for control, a steep altitude loss, an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, an arrest on the ground, and a later arrival in Tel Aviv after replacement aircraft arrived. Off-duty and on-duty crew, plus passengers who forced their way in, kept the jet from becoming a mass-casualty crash.
When a pilot turns a civilian cockpit into a weapon, the people in the cabin who refuse to sit still are the last line of defense, and on this flight, they held it.
