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How FlyDubai Passengers and Crew Averted Disaster After Pilot Was Stabbed During Flight
Confirmed
In Short: Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian pilot, unlocked the cockpit door after being stabbed by his Omani copilot, averting a potential disaster on Flydubai Flight FZ1073.
The Boeing 737, carrying 174 passengers, almost all Israelis, experienced a steep descent of nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds.
Yaniv Hayun, an Israeli passenger, managed to stabilize the plane using knowledge from the Air Disasters TV show.
Two other pilots on board took over the controls and landed the plane safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Israeli passengers were repatriated on a special flight from Saudi Arabia, which does not have diplomatic ties with Israel.
Public flight-tracking data confirmed the aircraft's steep descent before the emergency landing.
Netanyahu noted the presence of 30 children among the passengers but avoided linking the attack to Iran.
What this adds
The incident highlights the quick thinking and bravery of both the pilot and passengers in averting a potential disaster.
What's confirmed
- The Boeing 737, carrying 174 passengers, almost all Israelis, experienced a steep descent of nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds.
- Yaniv Hayun, an Israeli passenger, managed to stabilize the plane using knowledge from the Air Disasters TV show.
- Two other pilots on board took over the controls and landed the plane safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
- Israeli passengers were repatriated on a special flight from Saudi Arabia, which does not have diplomatic ties with Israel.
- Public flight-tracking data confirmed the aircraft's steep descent before the emergency landing.
- Netanyahu noted the presence of 30 children among the passengers but avoided linking the attack to Iran.
What's still developing
- In a call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian airline captain who helped thwart Wednesday’s attack on a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv recounted how he pushed the cockpit door open while fighting for his life after his copilot stabbed him and the plane began to plummet.
- By opening the cockpit door, Captain Smit Machchhar enabled several Israeli passengers to burst in and overcome and immobilize the copilot.
- The Indian pilot helped saved lives of over 150 people in the Fly Dubai flight from UAE to Israel Once Machchhar, covered in blood, managed to open the cockpit door, Israeli passengers who charged inside were able to overpower the copilot and tie him up and stabilize the plane, while other pilots who were on board brought the plane to an emergency landing in Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia.
- Israeli passengers were flown home on a special repatriation flight from Saudi Arabia — which has no diplomatic ties with Israel — while Machchhar and the attacking copilot were returned to the United Arab Emirates, Machchhar for medical treatment and the attacker for interrogation.
- Statesman News Service | New Delhi | October 1, 2026 2:04 pm Flydubai Flight FZ1073 was diverted to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia after an altercation inside the cockpit during its journey from Dubai to Tel Aviv. | Photo: IANS/Video Grab A badly wounded Indian pilot who managed to unlock his cockpit door as an Israel-bound flydubai jet plunged out of control helped avert a disaster that could have resembled “another 9/11”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.
- Flydubai confirmed that FZ1073 experienced an incident en route and said the aircraft landed safely, with all passengers accounted for.
- “The pilot who was there, who was an Indian pilot… he’s very badly wounded. He’s fighting, I think, for his life right now. But… in an act of unbelievable courage, he managed to unlock the door to the cockpit,” Netanyahu said.
- “He grabbed him from behind, pulled him back, got into the pilot’s seat, pulled the stick back,” Netanyahu said.
- Netanyahu said he himself had previously been wounded during the rescue of passengers from a hijacked Sabena aircraft.
- “I myself was wounded in a rescue of a hijacked Belgian Sabena aeroplane, when we rescued passengers, again taken by Islamist terrorists,” he said.
- “The pilot was in very bad shape. But in a way, he was a hero to open the door,” Trump said.
- Flight FZ1073 was forced to divert to Tabuk after a cockpit confrontation sent the aircraft into a steep descent.