Crew, Israeli Passengers Subdue Pilot Attempting to Crash Dubai–Tel Aviv Flight
“According to Israeli officials, … the Omani co-pilot stabbed the Emirati pilot and attempted to take control of the plane by force.”
A major tragedy was narrowly averted when the crew and Israeli passengers reportedly subdued a pilot attempting to crash a flight bound for Tel Aviv.
The flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia with 174 passengers, most of them Israeli citizens, safely on board. “A Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv carrying 174 passengers, including 27 children, landed in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after a physical altercation between the pilots triggered an emergency signal that initially raised fears of a hijacking and prompted Israel to scramble fighter jets,” Israel’s Ynetnews reported Wednesday morning.
🇮🇱✈️🚨Watch: The first moments of the incident on the plane heading to Tel Aviv when one of the pilots started stubbing the other pilot
The terrorist attack has been averted due to the fearless passengers, otherwise it will be a another 9/11🙏🚨 pic.twitter.com/hgaZ8jYUOJ
— World_Breaking_News03 (@Breaking2003) September 30, 2026
The wounded pilot, who courageously fought off the attacker, was identified as Dubai-based, Indian-origin Capt. Smit Machchhar.
Introducing the hero of flight FZ 1073, Indian Capt. Smit Machchhar https://t.co/CqUEPG3Qiq pic.twitter.com/ephuacNnUP
— vijeta uniyal (@iUniyal) September 30, 2026
The incident, which is being treated by Israeli authorities as a potential terrorist attack, was averted thanks to the courageous actions of the crew and Israeli passengers who successfully overpowered the rogue pilot. “An Israeli passenger on board has told journalists the crew asked for help and that passengers then helped tackle one of the pilots and tie him down,” BBC reported.
The attacker reportedly stabbed his co-pilot and nosedived the plane in an apparent attempt to crash it. “According to Israeli officials, shortly after entering Jordanian airspace, the Omani co-pilot stabbed the … pilot and attempted to take control of the plane by force,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported. “During the altercation, the pilot transmitted a general emergency signal and then another emergency signal that indicated possible hijacking, as the aircraft was diverted towards Saudi Arabia and plunged 14,000 feet (approximately 4,200 meters) in a single minute.
#WATCH: Israeli passengers rush the cockpit to rescue their Flydubai flight after the copilot attempted to hijack it. pic.twitter.com/rs9L3EzL2B
— Israel National News – Arutz Sheva (@ArutzSheva_En) September 30, 2026
Initial reports suggest two passengers, both off-duty pilots, landed the plane after the pilot suffered stab wounds.
Addition: The plane was landed by two off-duty pilots who were on board as part of a training exercise.
— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) September 30, 2026
A video circulating on X shows a pilot’s blood-soaked uniform as he receives first aid on board the aircraft.
The Jerusalem Post covered the details of the incident:
A flydubai commercial passenger aircraft flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv diverted to and landed in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday morning after what Israeli officials said was an attempted hijacking by one of the pilots that led to a mid-air altercation.
An Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post a “major disaster was narrowly avoided” amid growing fears that one of the pilots attempted to hijack the plane with the intention of crashing it into the ground. Additional flight crew, aided by Israelis on board the flight, managed to subdue the pilot and bring him under control, the official told the Post.
The growing assessment among the Israeli security establishment, including the IDF, Mossad, and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), is that the incident was intended as an act of terror.
During the altercation, the aircraft plunged approximately 4,000 meters in altitude, the official noted.
The aircraft, operating as flight FZ1073 and carrying over 100 Israeli passengers, initially transmitted squawk code 7700, indicating a general emergency, before switching to 7500, which signals unlawful interference, and later reverting to the initial code.
As the incident unfolded, the Israel Air Force (IAF) scrambled fighter jets in preparation for a possible emergency and raised its alert level, Walla reported. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had convened a security meeting with defense officials, the Post learned.
'Od Avinu Chai' during emergency landing in Saudi Arabia pic.twitter.com/QSWO3KSOii
— Israel National News – Arutz Sheva (@ArutzSheva_En) September 30, 2026
The Israeli Air Force responded to the incident by scrambling fighter jets and briefly closing the country’s airspace. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that its “Chief of the General Staff conducted a situational assessment in recent minutes with the Commander of the Israeli Air Force, the Head of the Operations Directorate, the Head of Military Intelligence, and additional commanders.”
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in a first response to the attempted hijacking of a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv:
During the flight, as they approached Israel, one of the pilots stabbed the other and apparently attempted to crash the plane, with everyone on board.
I spoke with… pic.twitter.com/juw06JAE7W
— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) September 30, 2026
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Comments
I may have missed it – but who actually landed the plane? I mean one pilot was trying to crash it and the other was in dire need of medical attention. Did the stabbed pilot keep it together long enough to get on the ground, or did someone take over?
There were two off-duty pilots in the plane for some type of training, and they landed the plane.
With are the odds of finding former IDF pilots with 170 Israelis on board.
Pretty good, actually…
Where are you getting that from? One of the off duty pilots was from Fiji. I don’t see anything noting that they were IDF. I thought they were off duty pilots from the airline.
As I wrote “Initial reports suggest two passengers, both off-duty pilots, landed the plane… .”
We don’t know their nationalities. In above comment I am talking about probability.
It was a Israel national with knowledge of aviation who stopped the nosedive.
https://x.com/AmichaiStein1/status/2105339290116854187
Yes. He was the first person into the cockpit, leveled the plane, then the two off-duty pilots took over to land it.
NY Post has the most coverage on this, including photos of inside the aircraft. WSJ headline online wrote there was commotion in the cockpit and little else, nothing on FN online, FN morning show one hour ago had a scroll that mentioned possible hijack incident aboard plane….
This should be big news if it’s true that an Omani pilot (NYPost) tried to hijack an airliner.
174 passengers aboard. etc. etc.
So how did the plane land?
Short answer: Isrealis being Israelis.
Two off-duty pilots.
Not Israelis, apparently.
Slow it down til it starts to lose lift, do your approach, drop the landing gear, flare, touch down, reverse thrust for a bit. Done!
/ducking
You’re not the only one ducking!
Those two pilots that landed Amazon Air in Florida failed to do that. And now they’re ducking—from media, reporters and anybody who has a question.
From what I have heard about those pilots, I likely would have done a better job of handling that plane despite only 170 hours of single engine land VFR flying experience.
Paula, Indeed! This is the first I’ve heard about it, and very little information is available.
SMALL aircraft, yes. Big boys, no. They fly right down to the landing well above stall speed because the *last* place you want to stall that fat turkey is where the dirt is. No time to recover.
Flying with a good view of the wing gives me the heebies on landing. The whole (censored) wing comes apart to the point you can see straight through most of it.
Oh, I know. And as for seeing through the wing, the very best “view” ever offered was with the really complicated wing used on the 727. The old joke was not to call for 30 degrees of flaps, but 30 degrees of wing disassembly.
Two off-duty pilots on the plane landed it.
NO to Muslim’s in the cockpit PERIOD
Not just cockpits. There’s a whole long list of places of NO to Muslims.
One of life’s constants. No matter when in time, no matter where in the world, find Muslims, find trouble.
We have a problem with them in this country.
The problem is we have them in this country.
So FlyDubai should not hire Moslem pilots?! How ridiculous.
You are of course free not to fly on airline like that. But every Western country has anti-discrimination laws that mean you can never guarantee you won’t get a Moslem pilot, on any normal airline.
Because being a passenger on a plane nosediving and spinning out of control is NOT OK.
And what has that got to do with the fact that you cannot expect an airline based in a Moslem country not to hire Moslem pilots? Or with the fact that no airline based in a modern civilized country is able to discriminate against Moslem pilots?
Milhouse, defender of the brain-dead Satan worshipping primitives.
Spike, idiot who is incapable of understanding even the simplest ideas, and it’s a wonder he can even read.
I identify as a democrat so I can discriminate at will.
# of days since last airline hijacking attempt 0.
Not cool to see whatever the heck was going on where one pilot stabbed another in the cockpit and whatever security is going on needs a look see about the knife.
I’m sure it was a plastic one, like they use for meals in the back of the plane. It’s the only possible answer, right?
Why would you search pilots for weapons, when they’re in charge of the plane?
The answer is in the above story, Duh.
Answer, today’s attempt to murder the other pilot and 174 passengers and crew
DUH!!!
All I know is that the USA Armed Pilot Program is now in danger of being abolished by the next Democrat administration.
Even if they DID, I am sure our TSA, in the name of not being “racist”, would give muslims a bye on those inspections.
The same reason you’d search everyone else getting on a plane. If you’re insinuating that pilots don’t need a weapon to crash a plane …this event seems to contradict that. Heck I’d have harsher security measures for pilots and crew if it was up to me.
The most disturbing part is that immediately after the incident, Russian and Ukrainian media were already pushing fake stories claiming the two pilots were Russian and Ukrainian citizens, with each side claiming that the “other” pilot had stabbed the other — as if a sane airline would deliberately crew a flight that way. Pure propaganda. Only later did reports emerge that the **Omani co-pilot stabbed the captain**, while different sources still give conflicting information about the **captain’s background, with reports variously describing him as Emirati or Indian**, making the initial propaganda even more absurd…
US media is slow to respond on the other hand..
Just trying to get the narrative straight. I’m sure that according to the US media, it will be a “mental health breakdown” and that no one will report that anyone said “aloha snackbar”, except that biased Israeli media.
But, but…! I thought dah joooz controlled the press?
The growing assessment … is that the incident was intended as an act of terror.
Thank G-d for experts! We never would have figured it out, otherwise!
Although sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, you’ll note it’s always a psychologist being consulted and never a tobacconist.
And you know that being able to jump in and save the day (like Ted Striker) is the fantasy of every old pilot (and every player of Microsoft Flight Simulator). 😉
Kudos to those guys for landing a broken jet (the dive or recovery from it yanked the rudder off) and getting everyone on the ground safely.
And, kudos to everyone for stepping up and saying, “Nah. Not here. Not today.”
Surely you can’t be serious.
Notice how carefully curated the lead image in this posting is…you cannot see the tail section of the aircraft. They’re attempting to minimize this because most of the tail’s RUDDER is gone.
The few articles I’ve seen have tried to deflect information about this by saying that it was due to the steep dive that the Omani pilot put the aircraft into during the hijacking. Nope.
What’s little known is that for decades now aircraft are no longer designed to have their rudders and tail sections stand up to the forces involved in full rudder side-to-side excursions. ScareBus jets in particular are subject to losing not only their rudders but sometimes the entire tail section. It’s so darned common all you have to do is a quick ‘net search of “damaged AirBus tails and rudders” and come up with hundreds of images from different incidents.
Anybody remember American Airlines flight 587 out of NYeffinC that crashed because of “the aggressive use of the rudder controls by the first officer, the result of a flawed training scenario that exaggerated the effects of wake turbulence, stressed the vertical stabilizer until it was ripped from the aircraft”? (cited from Wikipedia) The “vertical stabilizer” is the entire tail. Because of these relaxed aircraft worthiness standards planes just fall out of the sky.
Those two pilots who happened to be on board must have done one heck of a job to fly that plane to a successful and safe landing without a rudder.
What a terrifying experience for all those aboard that plane. And bravo to the men who maintained their composure enough to get the plane flying again. Amen and God bless.
Given that there’s no hectic ring of cop cars around the plane in that photo, I’m guessing it’s just a stock photo.
Check out Juan Browne on the Blancolirio on Youtube…. Airforce…now 777 driver. The rudder was likely lost from flutter at the CRAZY speed the 737 Max 8 was doing in the dive. Max descent 28000 feet per minute. The plane didn’t come apart …. tough ship. When Trump complimented Boeing on building a great plane… he wasn’t kidding. The plane may be a right off from what happened.
The copilot used the emergency AXE to attack the pilot. Pilot did the right thing and the passengers did also. Frankly, I’d have hog tied the co-pilot and dropped him head first out the door… come what may to his health.
Muzzlimm s gotta muzzlimm
I literally can’t imagine another group of people other than Israelis surviving such an experience and living to tell of it. They are one tough group of people, the crew and passanegers will literally kick your ass. Unfortunately, I don’t think Americans would have responded so bravely and effectively, we have forgotten the lessons of 9/11 and the passengers and crew on Flight 93. Now it’s just “some people did something,.” Well those “some people,” are still out there trying to “do something,” and they don’t just hate Jews. And guess what if your the “wrong kind of Muslim,” you to can get stabbed.
I truly wish that the average American Jew were cut from the same cloth as Israelis.
I am not saying this about ALL American Jews, but there seem to be so many who want the “civilian” population disarmed; they wring their hands and snivel about so many things rather than acting; and so many seem to be nervous wrecks.
There are plenty of leftist Israelis — pretty much the whole of North Tel Aviv — who are as bad as the kind of American Jew you are talking about.
I’ve often daydreamed of being the hero who lands the plane. ” Ladies and gentlemen, do we have anybody aboard? Who knows how to fly. Please press your call button”. I volunteer and go to the cockpit. I get on the radio and tell him the last time I flew was close to 50 years ago and was at the controls of a Grumman. Aa1a. I think it would get some interesting reactions.
“I think it would get some interesting reactions.”
A bear in the cockpit would raise eyebrows fur shure! .
Greacher!
GrrrrReache! 😁🐻
I was in private pilot training for a while, and can take off and land small aircraft (which is a lot easier than people think) I got to sit in a jumbo jet trainer once for some sample landings, no issues, no missing rudder, no issues and a pilot giving me instructions. Pranged every one of the landings. All the small aircraft reflexes worked against me and I over-corrected right into the ground repeatedly.
I took a friend up; he was used to Cessna 150s and 172s. We were in a Grumman Traveler. He grabbed an armload of aileron like he was in a Cessna and almost put the plane inverted.
He also did not understand the concept of 1200 rpm even on short final.
We just want to tell you good luck, we’re all counting on you.
I’m pretty good at following instructions so I – really – think I could do it if asked.
Surely one of the most underrated movies of all time.
Don’t call me Shirley.
Some don’t know about this little factoid regarding Airplane!
https://youtu.be/8-v2BHNBVCs
I started training in a AA1B and got a hundred hours or so and then did some instructing in same before we switched to the C152.
The Grumman was a FUN airplane to FLY … but you had to really fly it to be safe. The 152 could nearly be launched and landed without pilot interference.
The Grumman fiberglass mains and spring steel nose gear required a real flare to land … carrier style “plants” were likely to induce Pilot Induced Oscillations.
I miss that plane!
Check out Mentour Pilot on Youtube….. you too can land a 737 with radio assistance. (Spoiler alert: the 737 can autoland with the correct input.) As for stick and rudder stuff, I’ve done it on a sim such on X-plane with minimal panel…. after a few attempts.
FlyDubai is now Don’tFlyDubai.
There’s always that French airline, Air Chance.
After the muslim attack on 9/11, cockpit doors were hardened and made virtually impenetrable to keep terrorists out.
Now a muslim terrorist (copilot) was in the cockpit stabbing the captain while being protected by a secure door.
Yes how did he get that door opened so he could get help?
Some questions are probably better not asked. The answers could endanger other innocents if this happens again and the attacker is aware of facts they should not know.
The injured pilot was able to push a button to open the door.
Those are mostly American regs. That 737 is likely in local service and so don’t come here. The hardened door thing may not be a requirement.
The German Wings co-pilot had the hardened door and as that alone in the cockpit… no way in. Just flew down to SoCal on Alaska…. when pilot or co-pilot out of cockpit, an attendant is there to always have two people there.
And every leftist media outlet referred to it as a ‘fight’ or ‘altercation’.
And places like the BBC claimed they were ‘unable to verify’ the accounts of 150 passengers. Despite every one of them saying the same thing. One has to ask how, exactly, they would be able to ‘verify’ if 150 consistent stories isn’t enough.
One screaming headline over at citizenfreepress.com said it was 167 or some such Israeli passengers. Uhm… no.