Passengers of the Flydubai incident arrive in Tel Aviv, and Netanyahu says that a pilot stabbed his colleague and tried to shoot down the plane.
Published 30 September 2026, 06:52 GMT
Last updated 6 minutes ago
Reading time: 4 minutes
A plane carrying passengers on a Flydubai flight, which was diverted to Saudi Arabia after reports of a confrontation between the pilot and his co-pilot, landed in Tel Aviv on Wednesday evening, according to pictures broadcast by Agence France-Presse television.
The plane landed on the runway at Ben Gurion Airport at 15:34 GMT.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that one of the pilots of the Fly Dubai flight, which was diverted to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, stabbed the other pilot and tried to shoot down the plane.
Netanyahu stated in a televised speech, “During the flight, and as they were approaching our country, one of the pilots stabbed his colleague and apparently tried to shoot down the plane with all its passengers,” praising what he described as “heroes” who intervened to control the attacker, “saving many lives” and allowing “to avoid a major disaster.”
He pointed out that Saudi Arabia arrested the co-pilot who carried out the stabbing, pointing out that the authorities in the Kingdom are currently interrogating him.
Netanyahu said he issued directives to prepare for other potential threats.
A spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister's Office also announced that he had issued instructions to tighten security measures on board Israeli and non-Israeli airlines, following the Flydubai flight accident.
This comes after a plane belonging to the Emirati company Flydubai, which was heading to Israel, landed in Saudi Arabia, while Israeli reports indicated that an altercation took place on board.
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Israeli media reported that an altercation took place between the pilot of the plane and his co-pilot, which required the activation of the distress signal, which raised fears of a hijacking. Passengers on board the plane intervened to separate the two pilots during the quarrel that broke out between them, and published pictures of one of the passengers wearing a blood-stained shirt.
The Saudi Tabuk Airport announced that the pilot of the plane that landed at the airport and his co-pilot were injured and were taken to the hospital.
A statement from Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk said that the Flydubai plane “landed at the airport at 9:45 am local time (6:45 GMT), and it was found that both the plane’s captain and the co-pilot were injured. They were transported to the hospital, providing the necessary care to the passengers and coordinating with the air carrier to secure an alternative plane.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz denounced what he considered an "attempted jihadist attack" on board the plane.
The plane was crossing Saudi airspace on its way from Dubai to Tel Aviv when it requested an emergency landing at Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia.
The far-right Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, accused a “terrorist” of trying to shoot down the plane and kill the Israelis on board.
Ben Gvir said in a statement, “The naive perception that our enemies sanctify life and that we must pity them was dealt a new blow this morning after a terrorist attempted to crash a plane and kill 180 Israelis on board.”
In this context, a spokesman for Flydubai announced that its “flight F-Z1073” “bound from Dubai International Airport to Ben Gurion International Airport... witnessed an incident during the flight,” which it did not specify. The company noted that the plane “landed safely and that all passengers are fine.”
Later, a company spokesman said that the reasons and motives for the altercation that took place in the plane’s cockpit “are still unknown and are subject to an official investigation.”
Reuters quoted an Israeli official as saying that the plane bound for Israel was diverted to Saudi Arabia after it sent emergency signals “because of a quarrel between the pilots and not because of a kidnapping,” in a story confirmed by Israeli media.
Netanyahu's office confirmed that the change in the plane's course "is not believed to be the result of a hijacking."
This coincided with the pilot changing the course of the plane that entered Jordanian airspace, and then diverted its course towards Saudi Arabia, according to a BBC Arabic correspondent in Jerusalem.
According to one of the travelers, the passengers of the Flydubai flight that landed in Saudi Arabia left on a new flight to Tel Aviv, according to Agence France-Presse.
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In this context, Israeli Channel 12 said: “There is an investigation into whether the pilot of the plane attempted to commit suicide by shooting down the plane, and his assistant intervened.”
Meanwhile, Israeli media reported that the security establishment now believes that the plane that diverted today, on its way from the Emirates to Israel, may have witnessed a “terrorist act.”
Agence France-Presse quoted a passenger on the flight as saying that the co-pilot stabbed the captain of the plane and tried to shoot it down, killing everyone on board.
Passenger Maryam Shira Ohion said that the plane was "almost out of control" when the stabbing incident occurred over Jordan, during the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv. The statements came to journalists via loudspeaker on her mother’s phone, who was waiting for her at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv.
She added: "The plane was already on its way to crash, and had it not been for the quick thinking of several people who controlled the co-pilot and paralyzed him, the disaster would have occurred."
She continued: "There was a doctor who provided first aid, and people treated both of them. There were no other injuries other than the pilot, but the greatest fear was that the plane would crash, which is exactly what the assailant was trying to do."
Her mother, Yasmine Abu Qassis, said that her daughter “thought they were going to die,” noting that a woman who was accompanied by three children “went to (the cockpit) and saw a lot of blood.”
She talked about the presence of two other pilots on board the plane who took over the command and changed its course towards Saudi Arabia.
At Tabuk Airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, located more than 100 kilometers from the Jordanian border, an Agence France-Presse correspondent reported a security presence in the vicinity of the airport, where an ambulance could also be seen.
The Israeli Chief of Staff conducted an “assessment of the situation with the participation of the Air Force Commander, the Chief of Operations, the Chief of the Intelligence and other leaders,” according to Israeli army spokeswoman Ella Wawiyeh.
Earlier, Yedioth Ahronoth quoted an Israeli security source as saying that there was no confirmed information about the plane being hijacked, indicating that its pilot activated a distress signal.
