‘Jihadist’ pilot stabbed co-pilot and tried to crash Flydubai plane before hero crew and pᴀssenger broke into cockpit and overpowered him, preventing ‘Israeli 9/11’
A flight bound for Israel was forced into an emergency landing after one pilot allegedly attacked another in a suspected hijacking attempt before being overpowered by pᴀssengers.
Flydubai flight FZ1073 was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv when the cockpit brawl broke out, with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming the attacker was trying to crash the plane after stabbing the other pilot.
The plane was diverted over Jordanian airspace before landing at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia, which is used for both military and pᴀssenger flights. Some 174 pᴀssengers were onboard.
Images appeared to show that a section of the rudder was missing from the vertical stabiliser after the flight touched down.
It was cruising at 34,000ft when it plummeted around 14,000ft in just 29 seconds, according to data from Flightradar24.
The plane fell around 17,000ft in less than two minutes at 5.21am co-ordinated universal time, or 6.21am British Summer Time.
Terrified pᴀssengers were heard screaming as the plane nosedived, with some seen praying in the aisles.
The plane transmitted a general emergency signal using a squawk code – four-digit numbers used for in-flight communication – of 7700 while making a U-turn over the border between the two countries.
While flying over Saudi Arabia it briefly issued a code of 7500, signalling unlawful interference or a hijacking.
An official in the Jewish state said that a ‘major disaster was narrowly avoided’ and said pᴀssengers had prevented an ‘Israeli 9/11’ by tying up the ᴀssailant.
Mr Netanyahu convened an emergency security meeting with defence minister Israel Katz following the incident, with the country’s airspace being closed and military jets scrambled over fears the pᴀssenger plane had been hijacked.
A second crew member is seen beside him, seemingly unconscious and covered in blood
One of the pᴀssengers on the Flydubai aircraft was seen with blood on his shirt
Another pᴀssenger can be seen with blood over his face, emerging from a gash on his forehead
Footage filmed by a pᴀssenger moments after the attack shows an air host covered in blood being tended to on the floor outside the cockpit.
A second crew member is seen beside him, seemingly unconscious and covered in blood.
Mr Katz described the incident as ‘an attempted jihadist terror attack’ that was ‘thwarted only thanks to the heroism of several Israeli pᴀssengers’.
The defence minister did not identify his source for ᴀssigning a motive to the pilot, whose idenтιтy has not been revealed.
Following the plane’s diversion to Saudi Arabia, pᴀssengers from the flight have now arrived safely in Israel on a second Flydubai flight, which landed at Ben Gurion airport at 4.34pm British Summer Time.
Mr Netanyahu confirmed that the pilot who carried out the stabbing, identified by an Israeli official as an Omani national, was arrested and is currently being questioned by the Saudi authorities.
Israel’s Transport Ministry said there would be a joint investigation of the incident with the defence establishment.
In a statement, the Israeli prime minister said: ‘During the flight, as they were approaching Israel, one of the pilots stabbed the other pilot and, apparently, tried to crash the plane with its pᴀssengers on board.
‘I spoke with one of the Israeli pᴀssengers. He told me that the plane went into a spin and began to descend.
‘He told me that, somehow, he managed to break into the cockpit with one of the crew members and, together, they overpowered the pilot who had carried out the stabbing while he was attempting to sabotage the aircraft’s systems.
Pᴀssengers from the flight wait at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia after their flight from Dubai to Israel was diverted
Pᴀssengers told Israel’s Channel 12 that they heard shouts from the front of the jet relating to the altercation between the pilots
‘Another air crew who was on the plane entered the cockpit and managed to stabilise the aircraft.
‘I salute these heroes who demonstrated extraordinary resourcefulness and courage. They saved many lives and prevented a major disaster.
‘The plane landed safely at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia. All the pᴀssengers are now out of danger.’
Pᴀssengers said they heard shouts from others at the front of the jet, who overheard the violent altercation.
According to witnesses, two pilots who were at the back of the jet came forward to help land it, with one pᴀssenger saying: ‘I shouted at them to run and take control of the plane.’
As the other pilots took control of the aircraft, pᴀssengers ran towards the man who had a knife.
One pᴀssenger, Almog Itali, described the two at the back of the plane as ‘relief pilots’ who were supposed to be operating a subsequent flight.
He said one was British and the second was European.
The Daily Mail has contacted the UK Foreign Office, and they said they were not aware of any British citizens being involved.
Mr Itali said the exact details of what happened in the cockpit are unclear but described how the relief pilots stabilised the aircraft and landed it in Saudi Arabia.
The jet dropped from 30,875 feet to 16,750 feet in just 29 seconds
Images appeared to show that a section of the rudder was missing from the vertical stabiliser after the flight touched down
Pᴀssengers file out of the rear of the plane after it landed in Saudi Arabia
‘There are quite a few versions,’ he said, after speaking to people from the front of the plane.
‘What is clear is that there were two pilots in the front – one stabbed the other.’
In a short translated clip on the BBC, he said: ‘There were two pilots in the front, one stabbed the other, and there were two spare pilots who were supposed to operate the next flight.
‘The relief pilots are European, one of them British, who entered (the cockpit) and pulled the aircraft up, pulled the yoke, stabilised the plane and landed us in Saudi Arabia.’
Another pᴀssenger who stormed the cockpit told Israeli media: ‘We jumped on the pilot with force and tied him up with headphones.’
PH๏τographs from the flight show one pᴀssenger with a white shirt, which is covered in blood.
Another recorded a video with blood over his face, saying: ‘We’re here during the hijacking of an airplane. At this point we’ve subdued the terrorists, we’re approaching landing. Whoever is hearing me, we need help.
‘We’re landing in Tabuk, apparently in Saudi Arabia. An unknown, unfamiliar area. On the plane, everybody is safe and sound, other than the pilot. We need help.’
Another pᴀssenger said: ‘We were either going to crash or be murdered. It was like a terrorist attack in mid-air.’
Authorities are investigating whether the pilot attempted to crash the plane, before being stopped by his co-pilot and pᴀssengers.
A female pᴀssenger on the Boeing 737 MAX said: ‘We heard screams on the plane. Then they opened the cockpit and we saw blood, and someone had stabbed the pilot with a pocketknife.’
The woman described how the Israeli pᴀssengers helped restrain an attacker along with members of the crew.
She said: ‘We prayed, “Shema Yisrael.”‘
‘There were also moments when we thought we weren’t going to make it out alive.’
Another woman, identifying herself as Noam, said: ‘Screams began on the plane… by pᴀssengers who realised what was happening.
‘We understand that one of the pilots was stabbed and seriously wounded, and they lost control of the plane. It started to dive quickly. It was very scary.’
One pᴀssenger, Itzhak Liber, recorded a video addressed to his family before uploading it onto Facebook.
He said: ‘We took control of the situation here on the flight.
‘There was an attacker with a knife who stabbed one of the pilots.
The Flydubai aircraft, which took off from Dubai, abruptly turned around while flying over Jordan after a suspected security incident was reported onboard
‘We just jumped on him and restrained him together with the pilot.’
Mr Liber added that the attacker had been ‘neutralised’, was ‘seriously injured’ and had been ‘tied up’.
One pᴀssenger said her husband helped to ‘neutralise the terrorist’.
The woman, Meital, says a member of the flight crew in the cockpit ‘tried to crash the plane’ and was subdued by pᴀssengers.
She said: ‘Someone shouted “stabbing” and my husband immediately understood what was happening and rushed to the front of the plane, and along with other Israelis they neutralised the terrorist.
‘There were stabbings and a lot of blood.
‘We’re very emotional and under terrible stress, it’s very difficult for me to talk.’
Another pᴀssenger, Dalia Shpigelon, told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the aircraft lost control and began to ‘dive’ about an hour before the scheduled landing.
She said that ‘suddenly there were terrible screams throughout the plane’ before ‘three to five guys burst into the cockpit’ and subdued the attacker and began treating the wounded pilot.
‘We realised that the situation was stabilising and continued the flight. Gradually, information began to emerge about what had happened in the cockpit,’ Ms Shpigel added.
She described how the ‘young men’ then took charge and began tending to pᴀssengers as the plane diverted its route to land in Saudi Arabia.
‘Right now, we’re all here in the terminal, and medical teams are examining us,’ Ms Shpigel added.
Mr Netanyahu confirmed that the pilot who carried out the stabbing, identified by an Israeli official as an Omani national, was arrested and is currently being questioned by the Saudi authorities.
Israel’s Transport Ministry said there would be a joint investigation of the incident with the defence establishment.
In a statement, the Israeli prime minister said: ‘During the flight, as they were approaching Israel, one of the pilots stabbed the other pilot and, apparently, tried to crash the plane with its pᴀssengers on board.
‘I spoke with one of the Israeli pᴀssengers. He told me that the plane went into a spin and began to descend.
‘He told me that, somehow, he managed to break into the cockpit with one of the crew members and, together, they overpowered the pilot who had carried out the stabbing while he was attempting to sabotage the aircraft’s systems.
‘Another air crew who was on the plane entered the cockpit and managed to stabilise the aircraft.
‘I salute these heroes who demonstrated extraordinary resourcefulness and courage. They saved many lives and prevented a major disaster.
‘The plane landed safely at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia. All the pᴀssengers are now out of danger.’
There was a second team of pilots in civilian clothes on the plane, according to the outlet, who allegedly prevented one of the other pilots from taking over and crashing the jet.
A senior Israeli official told the channel that if the pilots had not been on the jet, the incident could have ended in another ‘September 11, 2001, attack or 1976 Entebbe hostage incident’.
Israeli authorities were unable to make contact with the jet during the incident.
Mr Netanyahu had warned in recent days of unspecified, escalated security threats ahead of Israel’s October 27 election, leading opposition chief Yair Lapid to accuse him of fear-mongering.
Mr Katz took a veiled swipe at Mr Lapid, saying the government’s security warnings should be taken seriously by ‘both our enemies outside and former insiders who are not up to date’.
Israel has not experienced a hijacking in decades but maintains some of the strictest airport security in the world.
Commercial flights have flown between Israel and the United Arab Emirates since the countries normalised ties in 2020.
A Flydubai spokesman told the Daily Mail: ‘An altercation occurred in the flight deck of flight FZ 1073, operating from Dubai International (DXB) to Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV), on September 30.
‘The aircraft was successfully secured by on-duty Flydubai crew travelling on the flight, who diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk Airport (TUU).
‘All pᴀssengers and crew are safe and accounted for.
‘We have deployed two replacement aircraft to Tabuk to relieve the pᴀssengers and crew.
‘This incident has no impact on other scheduled operations across the flydubai network.
‘At this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation.
‘We urge all parties to refrain from premature speculation while authorities gather the facts.
‘Our immediate priority is to ensure the ongoing safety, health, and wellbeing of all pᴀssengers and crew members involved in this incident and support the official investigation.’
✓ Ryan Mitchell
A flight bound for Israel was forced into an emergency landing after one pilot allegedly attacked another in a suspected hijacking attempt before being overpowered by pᴀssengers….