Co-pilot stabbed captain and tried to crash flydubai flight, says Netanyahu; 174 lives saved by passengers

The co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 stabbed the captain and apparently tried to crash the aircraft with 174 people on board, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement on Wednesday — the first official account of what happened aboard the Dubai–Tel Aviv flight that plunged toward the Arabian desert before being wrestled back under control.

According to Netanyahu's account and passenger testimony, the attacker — identified by Israeli officials as an Omani national, though this has not been independently verified by all authorities — stabbed Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, in the cockpit about two and a half hours into the flight. Flight-tracking data showed the Boeing 737 dropping nearly 14,000 feet in about 30 seconds; the aircraft transmitted both the general emergency signal and the unlawful-interference signal used for hijackings.

Passenger Yaniv Hayoun told journalists the cockpit door was apparently unlocked; he and other passengers pushed their way in, found the attacker trying to destroy the instruments, put him in a chokehold and dragged him out of the cockpit, while another crew member stabilised the aircraft. "We just felt the plane drop completely and start spinning a little, and everyone was screaming," passenger Mika Bauman told CNN. "I was just sure I was going to die."

The jet diverted to Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where the captain and the first officer — both injured — were taken to hospital. Saudi authorities arrested the co-pilot, who is under interrogation; the United Arab Emirates, where the aircraft is registered, has opened its own investigation.

Netanyahu praised Machchhar as a "true hero" who "saved the lives of 174 people", saying the wounded captain fought back and helped create the opening for passengers and crew to retake the cockpit. He later met Hayoun — still in his bloodied shirt — telling him: "I look at you and I see a lion. I see a great hero." President Donald Trump said he had discussed the incident "at length" with Netanyahu, describing the co-pilot as "perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack job".

The fallout is already rippling through aviation security: Netanyahu ordered security "ramped up" on Israeli and non-Israeli carriers, Israel is reviewing checks on foreign pilots flying into the country, and flydubai has suspended flights to and from Israel pending investigation. The airline itself has said only that "an altercation occurred in the flight deck", that the underlying motives remain unknown, and has urged against premature speculation.