A pilot has been arrested after he stabbed the other pilot on a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv and "apparently tried to crash the plane", Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.
Passengers and crew overpowered the attacker and retook control of the Flydubai aircraft, landing it safely at an airport in Tabuk, northwestern Saudi Arabia, with more than 170 people on board.
The passengers, who were almost all Israeli, arrived later on Wednesday to Tel Aviv on a repatriation flight.
The stabbed pilot, named as Indian national Captain Smit Machchhar, has been taken to hospital but is reported to be in a stable condition. Netanyahu praised him as a "true hero" of "extraordinary bravery".
"Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster," Netanyahu wrote on X.
“He saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals.”
The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia said Machchhar was in a stable condition in hospital.
No official motive for the incident has been given, but Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has called it an "attempted jihadist terror attack".
US President Donald Trump said he had spoken with Netanyahu following the incident, saying it seemed as though the attacker was "perhaps a terrorist" or there were other reasons behind the attack.
Flydubai's flight FZ1073 took off from Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates at 03:05 GMT (07:05 local time), en route to Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel.
Around two and a half hours into its journey, data from flight tracking website Flightrader24 reported a rapid descent over Saudi Arabia, dropping more than 17,000 feet (over 5,000m) in less than two minutes.
Minutes later, the plane signalled an emergency code - squawk 7700 - before switching it to a squawk 7500 code reporting a hijacking.
Around twenty minutes after these codes were signalled, the plane looped back into Saudi Arabia, where it later started its manual descent for landing.
Less than an hour later, the plane returned to squawk 7700.
Shortly after the incident, the Israeli and Saudi Arabian air forces dispatched fighter jets, while Netanyahu held urgent consultations.
Initial media reports suggested a fight had broken out between the aircraft's two pilots, causing the rapid descent and landing.
However, in the hours after the plane touched down in Tabuk, eyewitness accounts and a statement by Netanyahu confirmed one of the pilots had stabbed the other and, according to the Israeli prime minister, "apparently tried to crash" the aircraft.
He said an Israeli passenger told him "the plane went into a spin and began to descend" before the passenger and a crew member broke into the cockpit and overpowered the "pilot who had carried out the stabbing".
Two on-duty crew travelling on the flight were then able to land the plane safely, Flydubai said.
In an address on Wednesday evening, Netanyahu called the situation "a very serious security incident" and said Israeli security forces are "maintaining close contact with the relevant authorities to ensure the continued safety of the passengers".
Unlike Israel's defence minister, Netanyahu did not give a motive for the incident.
"I salute these heroes who demonstrated extraordinary resourcefulness and courage," he added. “They saved many lives and prevented a major disaster.”
Flydubai said in a statement that "an altercation occurred in the flight deck" and the flight was "successfully secured by on-duty Flydubai crew travelling on the flight, who diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk airport".
An airline spokesperson added: “Our immediate priority is to ensure the ongoing safety, health, and wellbeing of all passengers and crew members involved in this incident and support the official investigation.”
The passengers who had been on board flight FZ1073 arrived in Tel Aviv at around 18:40 local time (15:40 GMT). They were greeted at the airport by crowds of onlookers playing music, singing, dancing and waving Israeli flags.
A number of people were "very emotional and crying as they came off the plane," a paramedic from Israel's ambulance service told the BBC.
One passenger, Yaniv Hayun, met Netanyahu and told him how he and others on the flight had restrained the attacker.
"The pilot who was stabbed was simply very close to the door, so it was hard for us to open it," Hayun said in a video posted on social media by the prime minister's office, but before the stabbed pilot - now identified as Machchhar - collapsed, he was able to open the door.
Yaniv said he put the attacker, who was trying to disable the plane, in a chokehold before other passengers helped pin him down.
He added that he "pulled the controls" of the plane and after it levelled out, another pilot took over control.
Zvika Meness, another passenger, told Israeli public broadcaster Kan News that he and other passengers tied the attacker up "with his own zip ties and with the multimedia headphones".
He said that: "There are children and families here who have been through a very severe, highly traumatic event."
Source: BBC
– Agencies
