Chaos aboard flydubai flight after co-pilot stabs pilot

It was awful, crazy, and we thank God that we survived it, we didn't think we will make ​it but thank God we are in Israel. We are back home. And we are happy to see everyone here," passenger Lital Shachaf said.

Israel's ambulance service said a 51-year-old ⁠man was taken to an Israeli hospital to be treated for injuries to his upper body. The man was in a "mild condition," it said. Describing the event as "a serious security incident," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saudi authorities would interrogate ​the co-pilot.

Flydubai said in a statement that the underlying reasons for the event remained unknown and warned against "premature speculation. " An Israeli official identified the co-pilot as an Omani national. There was no immediate comment from Oman.

Israeli officials applauded the passengers, ​who they credited with avoiding a much more serious disaster. Netanyahu said there were 174 people on board the flight from Dubai, most of them Israeli nationals. US President Donald Trump said he spoke "at length" with Netanyahu on Wednesday about the incident.

He proceeded to give reporters in the Oval Office a detailed account of what happened, adding: "This is the story that I heard — I don't know if it's true, but that's the story that I got from Bibi (Netanyahu).

"'SOMETHING YOU DO WITHOUT THINKING'A Netanyahu spokesperson captain, identified by the ​Israeli leader's office as Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, was covered with blood on the floor when he managed to click the release to open the cockpit door. Passengers who entered found the co-pilot bashing at the plane's control ​panel, the spokesperson said.

“This is something you do without thinking, just running to save your daughter’s life, your family’s life,” said Asaf Rajuan, one of the passengers who helped restrain the attacker. He spoke with a forehead still bloodied from the struggle.

Netanyahu's office released ‌a video ⁠showing the prime minister at Ben Gurion Airport giving a hug to another passenger, Yaniv Hayun, who his office said "broke into" the cockpit. "I see you and I see a lion – a big hero," Netanyahu, who was still wearing the blood-stained shirt he had on during the flight.

Flydubai operates daily return flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv, a route that is popular among Israeli nationals. The flight path normally uses airspace over Saudi Arabia and Jordan. It is not the first time a flight between Israel and the UAE has landed in Saudi Arabia.

A flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Riyadh in September 2025 due to a medical incident, Israeli media reported at the ​time. Saudi Arabia's Tabuk airport, where the plane landed, said both ​pilots had been hospitalised after sustaining injuries.

The incident heightened ⁠security fears in Israel weeks before Israelis vote in the first election since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks, with Israel's security figuring prominently in the campaigning. Responding to the incident on X, far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote, "Terrorism is a devil with whom no agreement must be reached".

ISRAEL TO TIGHTEN CHECKS ON PILOTS FLYING TO ISRAELIsraeli media published conflicting reports ​on the incident, with some outlets reporting that a pilot had tried to crash the passenger plane in an alleged suicide attempt. Some Israeli media outlets initially identified ​the pilots as Omani and Emirati ⁠nationals, while others said they were Russian and Ukrainian.

"Every pilot that is going to be flying into Israel, we are going to know the pilots' identities, know who they are, and do some type of security check," Doron Spielman, a Netanyahu spokesperson,. Netanyahu met on Sunday with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during a rare visit to the Gulf country.

Israel and the UAE have forged close security, military and economic ties since establishing diplomatic ties. Israel provided the UAE earlier this ⁠year with Iron ​Dome air-defence systems and Israeli personnel to operate them, helping defend against Iranian attacks launched after Israel and the US began strikes on Iran.

The UAE ​government had yet to comment on the flydubai incident, while the Dubai state-owned airline said an "altercation" occurred in the cockpit and the flight subsequently diverted to Tabuk, where it landed safely. The UAE's aviation regulator, the GCAA, said the flight "experienced a security incident that was brought under control".