A commercial disaster was narrowly averted on Wednesday when passengers and crew overpowered an armed co-pilot who stabbed the flight's captain and attempted to intentionally crash a Flydubai passenger jet en route from the United Arab Emirates to Israel according to reports from international media.
Flydubai Flight FZ1073, carrying 174 passengers and six crew members, departed Dubai International Airport at 07:05 local time destined for Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
Approximately two hours into the journey, while flying over the regional border corridor near Jordan, the co-pilot attacked the pilot-in-command, Captain Smit Machchhar, with a knife.
Following the assault in the cockpit, the Boeing 737 went into a steep dive, plummeting more than 17,000 feet in just over a minute.
According to flight-tracking data from Flightradar24, the aircraft broadcast emergency transponder code squawk 7700 before briefly transmitting squawk 7500, the international aviation signal indicating an unlawful interference or hijacking in progress.
Despite sustaining severe stab wounds, Captain Machchhar, an Indian national, managed to unlatch the cockpit door before collapsing.
Hearing the screams and noticing the steep descent, several passengers and crew members rushed the flight deck.
Passenger Yaniv Hayun placed the assailant in a chokehold while other passengers wrestled him to the floor. Passengers Zvika Meness and others bound the attacker with his own zip ties and onboard headphone cables.
Hayun managed to pull back on the control column to help arrest the dive before two off-duty airline pilots travelling in the cabin took the controls, stabilized the aircraft, and initiated an emergency descent.
The aircraft made a safe emergency landing at Tabuk Regional Airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia.
Captain Machchhar was rushed to a local hospital in Tabuk, where the Indian Embassy in Riyadh confirmed he remains in stable condition following emergency medical treatment.
The alleged attacker, identified by regional security officials as an Omani national, was taken into custody by Saudi authorities and is expected to be extradited to the United Arab Emirates for prosecution.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the crew and passengers for averting a mass casualty tragedy, hailing Captain Machchhar as a "true hero."
Addressing potential motives in an interview with Fox News, Netanyahu said it was "too early to say" whether there was state-sponsored involvement or foreign direction, adding that Israel had received no prior intelligence warning about the flight.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he spoke at length with Netanyahu following the incident, noting that investigators were working to establish whether the assailant acted out of extremist terrorism or individual mental instability.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz characterized the episode as an attempted terror attack, while airline operator Flydubai said investigations into the underlying causes remain ongoing in coordination with international aviation authorities.
