Israel Was Ready To Shoot Down flydubai Jet. Then This Happened

The Israeli authorities were ready to "shoot down" the flydubai plane after it sent a hijack signal when the Omani co-pilot attempted to seize the Israel-bound aircraft and crash it, according to a report by CBS News. The flight from Dubai had briefly entered Jordanian airspace when co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami allegedly stabbed flight captain Smit Machchhar in the cockpit and attempted to crash the aircraft, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said. 

The plane was carrying more than 170 passengers and crew, most of them Israeli.

Tel Aviv has long anticipated such a situation and has practised procedures for a possible 9/11-style event, CBS News reported, citing sources.

According to the report, when the plane plunged nearly 18,000 feet in a matter of seconds, the Israeli Air Force tried to contact the cockpit but got no answer. The incident prompted the pre-established procedure to kick in, with an already established committee quickly convening and setting up a command centre.

Soon, the fighter jets were scrambled, and Israeli airspace was closed. But before the flydubai flight was targeted, Israel realised that instead of entering its territory, the planes had turned towards Saudi Arabia, where the kingdom had scrambled its own jets. 

Israeli authorities once again called the jet. Sources said that Israel found out that by then the Indian pilot was able to fight off the co-pilot long enough to unlock the cockpit door, and a group of Israeli passengers and FlyDubai staff then overpowered the attacker as two off-duty pilots took control of the aircraft before making an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

"If Flight 1073 had gotten within a certain distance, Israel would have sent jets into Jordanian airspace to investigate," the sources told CBS News. 

The Protocol

Sources talked at length about Israel's pre-established protocol for a hijack attack situation, where if the ground command is unable to establish timely contact with the plane, Tel Aviv would send fighter pilots to check what was happening inside the flight. 

"The Israeli fighter pilots would have gotten as close as possible to inspect the cockpit and try to make visual contact with the pilot to assess the situation," the sources said. 

"They would have then done the same to the cabin to assess the status of the passengers. If there appeared to be panic, they would relay their findings to the Air Force and the pre-established committee," they added. 

Sources noted that if it was established that the plane was indeed hijacked and the potential hijackers maintained radio silence, without making any demands, the committee would have contacted the defence minister and the prime minister to discuss the next course of action. 

"The protocol calls for a rogue flight approaching Israel to be shot out of the sky, but only the prime minister could have made that decision," sources told CBS, adding that Tel Aviv believes shooting down the passenger jet would be better than many hundreds being killed if a rogue plane slammed into Israel's prominent Azrieli buildings, the airport or another "high-value target".

About The Incident

Hamam al-Hammami, who is accused of attacking the captain, is being held in the United Arab Emirates, where he reportedly told investigators that he had planned the attack even before joining FlyDubai. He said that he intended to kill the pilot, take control of the plane, get ground clearance and then crash the plane at Ben Gurion Airport

Sources told CBS News that the attempted hijacking was likely a lone-wolf attack. However, investigations into the motive and circumstances surrounding the incident are continuing.

Al-Hammami had worked for flydubai for only about eight months, CNN reported. A now-deleted LinkedIn profile bearing the name Hamam al-Hammami reportedly stated that he had worked with Oman Air for seven years and left the airline in February 2025.