Israel-bound plane diverted after co-pilot stabs captain

JERUSALEM - The co-pilot of a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv tried to crash the plane after stabbing the pilot, but passengers ​then held him ⁠down while other pilots landed the plane safely in Saudi Arabia, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

Describing the event as “a highly severe security incident”, Netanyahu said ‌Saudi authorities would interrogate the co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 from the United Arab Emirates to Israel.

The alleged assailant, who an Israeli official identified as an Omani national, was arrested after ⁠the plane landed, Netanyahu said.

“All passengers are out of harm’s way,” said Netanyahu, who described the passengers as being almost all Israeli, in a video statement released by his office.

The Israeli leader quoted a passenger as saying that passengers along with a member of the ​crew broke into the cockpit after the aircraft “entered a tailspin and began to dive” and found the co-pilot “trying to sabotage the plane’s systems”.

“They saved many ​lives. ‌They prevented a heavy disaster,” he said.

An Israeli official had earlier told Reuters the plane transmitted emergency signals after the pilots got ​into a physical altercation with each other.

The aircraft’s data appeared to ⁠show that it had suddenly and rapidly descended by nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds before a first emergency signal was sent, according to the flight-tracking website Flightradar24.

Around the time the plane landed in Saudi Arabia, Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister’s office, said the incident was not believed to have been a hijacking, describing it as a “different incident”. (Story continues below)

A verified image from a video posted on social media shows passengers gathered around an injured man aboard a Tel-Aviv-bound flydubai plane that was forced to land in Saudi Arabia after the pilots reportedly fought in the cockpit on Sept 30, 2026. (Photo via Reuters)

Video accounts

In a video purportedly of an Israeli passenger on board the flydubai flight ⁠and carried widely by Israeli media, the passenger said one of pilots was seriously injured and the other was slightly injured, after one of the pilots was stabbed.

Officials at Tabuk airport, where the plane landed, said that both pilots had been admitted to hospital after sustaining injuries. Neither the airport nor the purported Israeli passenger identified the attacker.

The flight transmitted a general emergency signal and then another emergency signal that indicated possible unlawful interference, according to Flightradar24.

The Boeing 737 plane, which Israeli media said had around 150 Israeli passengers on board, then again transmitted the initial general emergency signal before later landing at Tabuk airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, the website said.

It was not immediately clear who transmitted the emergency signals.

The incident heightened security ​fears in Israel weeks before Israelis vote in the first election since the Hamas-led Oct 7, 2023 attacks, with Israel’s security figuring prominently in the campaigning.

Responding to the incident on X, far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote “terrorism is a devil with whom no agreement must be reached”.

The incident triggered national security consultations in Israel, which has no official diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, where the plane landed.

In an earlier statement, the ​Israeli prime ⁠minister’s office said the situation was “under control” and that all measures were being taken to bring the Israeli passengers back to Israel.

Netanyahu, who had held security consultations on the incident, has cleared his schedule for the rest of the day to manage the crisis, an Israeli official said. (Story continues below)

A screen grab from a social media video shows a man speaking onboard a flydubai aircraft that was diverted to Saudi Arabia after transmitting emergency signals. (Photo: Reuters)

Pilot ‘forced to the floor’

Yasmin Abukasis said her daughter Miriam, ​who was among the passengers on the flight, had told her that she had heard screaming and that a man holding a knife had forced one of the pilots onto the floor, and that there was blood everywhere.

Israeli media published a photo purportedly taken from inside the plane, which appeared to show a passenger’s blood-soaked shirt. Reuters could not immediately verify the image.

Flydubai operates daily return flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv, a route that is popular among Israeli nationals. The flight normally uses airspace over Saudi Arabia and ‌Jordan.

It is not the first time a flight between ⁠Israel and the UAE has landed in Saudi Arabia. A flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv ​made an emergency landing in Riyadh in September 2025 due to a medical incident, Israeli media reported at the time.