A Flydubai cockpit attack on a Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight has left Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia running parallel inquiries into what happened on Wednesday, September 30. Israeli officials say the co-pilot stabbed the captain and apparently tried to crash a Boeing 737 carrying 174 people. The airline has confirmed only an altercation on the flight deck, and none of the three governments has published a formal finding on motive.
Flight FZ1073 was approaching Israel when the violence began, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The aircraft dropped steeply, then was flown to Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where it landed safely. Tabuk airport said the passengers later continued on another aircraft provided by the airline, and those travelling on reached Ben Gurion Airport the same day.
What Flydubai, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have confirmed
Flydubai said an altercation occurred on the flight deck and that on-duty crew travelling aboard secured the aircraft, diverted it and landed it in Tabuk. The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority called it a security incident that was brought under control, and urged the public not to circulate unofficial information while its inquiry continues. Both pilots were taken to hospital.
Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry said the co-pilot, suspected of assaulting the captain, left for Abu Dhabi with a security team after being medically cleared to travel. An Israeli official said Saudi Arabia led the first round of questioning. The UAE attorney general has ordered a specialist team to examine the incident, and the UAE says its courts have jurisdiction because the aircraft is registered there.
What Israeli officials allege about the Flydubai cockpit attack
Netanyahu told CBS News the episode “looks like a suicide attempt,” citing witnesses who said the co-pilot tried to jam the aircraft’s equipment instead of stabilising it. Defence Minister Israel Katz went further, calling it an “attempted jihadist terror attack” in a statement. An Israeli official said the preliminary investigation strongly suggests an attempted terrorist attack.
On Thursday, Netanyahu told Fox News that Israel knew from personal information gathered during questioning that the co-pilot had undergone Islamist radical indoctrination. These are Israeli government assessments, and no supporting evidence has been made public. The UAE has said its inquiry will examine whether the incident was linked to terrorist activity, so that question is open rather than settled.
Other claims are looser still. US President Donald Trump has suggested the co-pilot may have links to Iran, CBS News reported, though nothing reviewed for this article offered evidence for that. The weapon is also unclear: Netanyahu said the captain was stabbed or struck with an ax, investigators have released no details, and some reports raise the possibility of the cockpit’s emergency crash ax.
How the cockpit was retaken
Israeli officials say Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, unlocked the cockpit door despite being wounded, letting passengers and crew in. Passenger Yaniv Hayun has said he entered the cockpit and subdued the attacker, and Netanyahu has met him. Another passenger told an Israeli outlet that a doctor aboard bandaged the captain. These accounts come from officials and passengers and have not been independently confirmed.
India said Machchhar is in stable condition and was moved to Abu Dhabi for continued medical attention. Early reports differed on details, including which pilot attacked which, but both the Israeli and Saudi accounts now name the co-pilot as the attacker. Israeli and Indian leaders have praised the captain’s actions.
Who is investigating and what is still unknown
Israeli authorities have described the co-pilot as Omani, and President Isaac Herzog has said so publicly. Oman, the UAE and Flydubai had not confirmed his nationality when The National reported on Thursday on the UAE attorney general’s investigation. No statement from the co-pilot or a representative has been made public, so his own account is missing from the record. Oman and the United States are helping investigators work on motive, the Associated Press reported.
Israel’s own effort is broad. An Israeli official told CNN that Shin Bet, Mossad, the military and the transport ministry are all involved, and that a central question is why the crew included a pilot from a country without diplomatic relations with Israel. Netanyahu said the UAE president agreed that Israel would join the questioning in the UAE, which Emirati officials had not publicly confirmed in the reporting reviewed.
Israel’s pilot-screening plans and the question they raise
Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the prime minister’s office, said Israel will identify every pilot flying into the country and run some form of security check on each, and that Netanyahu told authorities to raise security across all airlines serving Israel. No rules, start date or legal text had been published as of Thursday, so what the checks will involve is unknown. Flydubai has temporarily suspended Dubai-Tel Aviv flights, with one outlet attributing the pause to a Shin Bet recommendation.
The announcement sits awkwardly beside existing practice. Netanyahu said Israel has long-standing agreements with foreign airlines that keep pilots from countries without diplomatic ties off flights into Israel, and an Israeli security official told CNN that Shin Bet is supposed to vet airline personnel arriving from the UAE. If the co-pilot is indeed Omani, investigators must establish how he came to be on this crew.
Dave Komendat, a former Boeing security chief now at International SOS, said crew screening should closely mirror what passengers go through, though practice varies worldwide. The International Civil Aviation Organization sets baseline vetting standards, and national regulators and airlines can add their own. A CNN analyst noted that many post-9/11 measures were built to keep outsiders out of the cockpit, not to stop a threat already inside.
Several basic questions remain open: why the co-pilot acted, what weapon was used, whether anyone else was involved, whether he is Omani and how he was cleared for this flight. The UAE aviation authority has said its findings will be made public once issued. HCN will update this story as verified facts emerge.