By The Daily Wire (World News) | Created at 2026-09-30 12:11:11 | Updated at 2026-09-30 13:54:13
6 hours ago
A knife-wielding Omani co-pilot repeatedly stabbed his Emirati captain and tried to nosedive a packed Tel Aviv-bound jetliner on Wednesday, sending it plunging 18,000 feet before a band of heroic Israeli passengers smashed into the cockpit and wrestled the attacker to the floor, according to Israeli officials and passenger accounts.
Israel has reportedly classified the incident as an attempted terror attack.
Flydubai Flight FZ1073, a Boeing 737 MAX 8, took off from Dubai early Wednesday with roughly 174 people on board, including about 27 children, bound for Ben Gurion Airport. About an hour and a half out from Israel, the jet first flashed a general distress signal, code 7700. Minutes later, it switched to 7500, the code for “unlawful interference,” aviation shorthand for a hijacking. Then it vanished from flight-tracking apps.
Israeli Air Force fighter jets roared into the sky, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz huddled in an emergency meeting.
Early reports painted the drama as little more than a cockpit scuffle between two feuding pilots. That story fell apart fast.
According to passenger testimony and Israeli security assessments, the co-pilot pulled a pocketknife and plunged it into the captain again and again. He then allegedly seized the controls and aimed the plane at the ground.
“One pilot stabbed the other and tried to do 9/11,” an official told Channel 12.
As the co-pilot attacked the captain, the aircraft spun out of control for several terrifying minutes as it dropped like a stone.
That’s when ordinary Israelis became extraordinary.
Crew members and passengers reportedly forced their way through the cockpit door and overpowered the attacker. Two off-duty pilots riding in the back reportedly helped steady the crippled jet.
“We just jumped in and pulled him out of the cockpit,” one blood-spattered passenger said in a video filmed on board, assuring loved ones that the attacker had been “neutralized.”
In another video posted on social media, a man said, “They attacked us — we’re guarding the pilot here.”
Footage obtained by LBC shows the aftermath of the attack as two men believed to be the pilots lay bloodied on the floor as passengers pinned them down. Blood streaked the cabin walls, and both men wore oxygen masks, with one man appearing limp.
Israeli outlets Israel Hayom and Channel 14 identified the captain as a citizen of the United Arab Emirates and the accused attacker as a citizen of Oman.
The battered plane made an emergency landing at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Airport in Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia, which in itself is remarkable, given that Riyadh and Jerusalem have no formal diplomatic relations.
As the wheels touched down, the Israeli passengers erupted into a chorus of “Am Yisrael Chai,” which means, “The People of Israel Live.”
The moment @flydubai flights Landed in Saudi Arabia pic.twitter.com/iYv1MJSV6a
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) September 30, 2026
After the plane landed, Saudi security forces surrounded the jet. Passengers, some still wearing shirts soaked in blood, were kept on board awaiting a replacement aircraft. El Al offered to send a rescue flight into Saudi Arabia, which would be a first in the Israeli carrier’s history.
A senior Israeli official said the co-pilot is being questioned, and that evidence increasingly suggests he planned to crash the plane with everyone aboard. The co-pilot’s motive and any affiliation with a terror group remain unconfirmed.
Flydubai confirmed only that the flight suffered an “incident” and landed safely in Tabuk.
Israeli journalist Amit Segal noted it was the first attempt in over two decades to hijack an Israel-bound flight, a throwback to the bloody era of the 1960s and ’70s, when Palestinian terrorists repeatedly targeted planes carrying Israelis, culminating in the legendary 1976 Entebbe rescue.
Segal reported that the captain was clinging to life and the jet had suffered damage to its steering and a wing, making the passengers’ intervention all the more miraculous.
The attack came a day after Netanyahu warned enemies at an air force base that Israel’s reach is unlimited: “Our long arm will reach you anywhere, and at any time.”
But in the end, it was the people in their seats who rescued the plane and its passengers.
