Passengers stop co-pilot from crashing plane

Passengers on a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv foiled a co-pilot’s attempt to crash the aircraft, Israeli officials said. The co-pilot stabbed the pilot, sending the jet plunging nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds.

According to Israeli officials, passengers and crew entered the cockpit, overpowered the co-pilot, and enabled a second pair of flydubai pilots who were aboard the flight to land the jet safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

Investigation Underway

The attacker’s motive remains under investigation. Israel and the United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, signed the Abraham Accords normalizing relations in 2020. The incident has sharpened concerns about global aviation security in a region scarred by years of conflict.

Israeli officials said the passengers’ actions prevented a much more serious disaster. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there were 174 people on board the flight from Dubai, most of them Israeli nationals. He described the event as “a serious security incident” and said Saudi authorities would interrogate the co-pilot.

A 51-year-old man was taken to an Israeli hospital to be treated for injuries to his upper body, Israel’s ambulance service said. The man was in a “mild condition,” it said. Passenger Lital Shachaf described the episode as a miracle, saying, “It was awful, crazy, and we thank God that we survived it.”

US President Donald Trump said he spoke “at length” with Netanyahu on Wednesday about the incident. He gave 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).”

Passengers who helped restrain the attacker, including Asaf Rajuan, were hailed as heroes. Rajuan said, “This is something you do without thinking, just running to save your daughter’s life, your family’s life.” Netanyahu’s office released a video showing the prime minister giving a hug to another passenger, Yaniv Hayun, who helped break into the cockpit.

Flight Details

Flydubai operates daily return flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv, a route popular among Israeli nationals. The flight path normally uses airspace over Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The incident is not the first time a flight between Israel and the UAE has landed in Saudi Arabia, with a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv making an emergency landing in Riyadh in September 2025 due to a medical incident.

Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk airport, where the plane landed, said both pilots had been hospitalized after sustaining injuries. The incident has 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, far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote, “Terrorism is a devil with whom no agreement must be reached.” Israeli 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.

Israel will tighten checks on pilots flying into the country, with every pilot’s identity to be known and security checks to be conducted, according to Doron Spielman, a Netanyahu spokesperson. The co-pilot has been identified as an Omani national, and there was no immediate comment from Oman.

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.”

The wounded captain, identified 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, allowing passengers to enter and restrain the attacker. Asaf Rajuan, one of the passengers who helped, still had a bloodied forehead from the struggle.

The second pair of flydubai pilots who were on board played a key role in landing the plane safely. They took control of the aircraft after the co-pilot was overpowered.

Aftermath and Investigation

The GCAA, the UAE’s aviation regulator, said it would investigate the incident. Flydubai said it was cooperating fully with the investigation and warned against premature speculation.