Pilot who stabbed co-pilot on Israel-bound plane may have tried to crash it, says Netanyahu

One of the pilots of a plane flying from the UAE to Israel stabbed his co-pilot and appeared to try to crash the plane, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said, as Israeli officials said they were investigating whether the incident was an attempted terror attack on Israelis.

The plane 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 from 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 approximately 170 passengers onboard.

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 onboard,” 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 plane 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 Oman or the United Arab Emirates.

Two and a half hours after taking off from Dubai, the plane 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 plane, and the wounded pilot managed to open the latch on the cockpit door, leaving it ajar.

The plane also began to abruptly descend, falling about 17,000ft in a two-minute span. As the plane 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 plane and began to land it safely in north-western Saudi Arabia.

Among those who intervened was an off-duty British pilot, according to a passenger, Almog Itali, who said the plane was carrying a pair of relief pilots who were meant to fly the next flight.

“The relief pilots are European, one of them British, who entered [the cockpit] and pulled the aircraft up, pulled the yoke, stabilised the plane and landed us in Saudi Arabia,” Itali said in a clip posted by the BBC.

Also among those who stopped the attack were Israeli security forces and air marshals, the Associated Press reported, citing sources close to the Saudi investigation into the incident.

Videos of the incident showed passengers screaming as the plane descended, as well as a blood-covered man who appeared to be the pilot injured and on the floor.

One passenger, Miryam Shira Ohayon, told reporters via her mother’s phone at Tel Aviv airport: “The co-pilot tried to murder the pilot and basically carry out a suicide attack on the plane.

“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 added that a doctor onboard treated the wounded pilot.

Yasmin Abu Kaiss, whose daughter was on the flight, told Reuters her daughter said she had heard screaming and a man with a knife had put a pilot on the floor, and that there was blood everywhere.

Israeli officials initially scrambled fighter jets after the emergency signals were sent out, fearing an attack on Israel or that the plane 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.

A picture taken on the plane that appears to show a man with blood on his T-shirt. Photograph: Amit Segal

The head of the Israeli military, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, postponed his visit to the US 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.

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 planes 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 a plane 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.

Copyright for this text belongs to The Guardian.