One of the pilots of an aircraft flying from the United Arab Emirates to Israel stabbed his co-pilot and appeared to try to crash the aircraft, the Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said, as Israeli officials said they were investigating if the incident was an attempted terror attack on Israelis.
The aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after the apparent attack, with the two pilots wounded but other passengers safe, according to a statement by Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz international airport, more commonly known as Tabuk airport.
The pilot accused of carrying out the attack was being questioned by Saudi authorities, Netanyahu said. Israel’s transport ministry said it would carry out a joint investigation with the defence establishment.
It was not immediately clear what motivated the attack, which threatened the lives of the about 170 passengers on board.
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The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, described the incident as an “attempted jihadist attack”.
“The terrorist had a single objective: to crash the plane, killing everyone on board,” Katz said, adding that the attack was stopped due to the “heroism of several passengers”.
The passengers of the diverted flight landed in Israel on Wednesday evening on a replacement aircraft, eight hours after their emergency landing. Netanyahu praised the bravery of the crew members and passengers who subdued the attacker and landed the aircraft safely.
“They saved many lives. They prevented a heavy disaster,” he said.
Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to reporters, said the attacker was an Omani national and that Israel’s current assessment of the incident was that it was a terror attack. There was no comment on the attack from either Oman or the United Arab Emirates.
Two and a half hours after taking off from Dubai, the aircraft sent out an emergency signal – squawk code 7700, indicating a general emergency – before sending out another – code 7500, indicating a potential hijacking attempt.
Passengers heard screams from the front of the aircraft, and the wounded pilot managed to open the latch on the cockpit door, leaving it ajar.
The aircraft also abruptly descended, falling about 5,200m in a two-minute span. As the aircraft began to dive, passengers and a crew member pushed their way into the cockpit, subduing the attacker. Other crew members then stabilised the descent of the aircraft and began to land it safely in northwestern Saudi Arabia.
Videos of the incident showed passengers screaming as the aircraft descended, as well as a blood-covered man who appeared to be the pilot injured and on the floor.
“The co-pilot tried to murder the pilot and basically carry out a suicide attack on the plane,” passenger Miryam Shira Ohayon told reporters via her mother’s phone at Tel Aviv airport.
“It was really on the way to crashing, and it was simply the resourcefulness of many people who took control of the co-pilot and neutralised him,” she said, adding that a doctor on board treated the wounded pilot.
Israeli officials initially scrambled fighter jets after the emergency signals were sent out, fearing an attack on Israel or that the aircraft would be diverted to a third country. A spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister’s office then said the incident was not a hijacking, as media reports circulated of a fight between the two pilots.
As more information emerged about the violent nature of the attack, Israeli and international media began to report officials anonymously saying an investigation had been opened into whether this was an attack on Israelis.
The head of the Israeli military, Lieut Gen Eyal Zamir, postponed his planned visit to the United States next week over the incident, where he was meant to have a meeting with US joint chiefs of staff and the head of US central command, which oversees US military operations in the Middle East.
The incident came just days after Netanyahu, warned there were indications an attack would be carried out during Israel’s October elections. The Israeli military, quoted by Israeli media, said it had no intelligence that an attack was being planned on Israel.
Yair Lapid, an opposition figure and former prime minister, cast doubt on the connection between the alleged attack and Netanyahu’s warning, saying that a security briefing on Tuesday night gave no information about a possible incident similar to what happened on Wednesday.
Israel experienced a series of hijackings and attacks on aircraft by Palestinian militants in the 1960s and 1970s, but has not had anything similar in decades. The country maintains some of the strictest airport security procedures in the world, including security checks before passengers board Israel-bound flights.
Flights between Dubai and Israel started after the countries normalised ties in 2020. Israel does not have diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, but in 2025 landed an aircraft in Riyadh because of a medical emergency.
Flydubai confirmed that flight FZ 1073 en route to Ben Gurion experienced an incident and landed safely in Tabuk on Wednesday. “Our teams are working closely with the relevant authorities,” the carrier said. “Further updates will be issued as additional confirmed details become available.”
Israeli media reported that a later Flydubai flight heading to Tel Aviv turned around in mid-air back towards Dubai after the incident. – Guardian
