Israeli security agencies do not rule out that what happened this Wednesday during the FlyDubai flight from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Tel Aviv was a terrorist attack by the co-pilot who stabbed the captain with the intention of crashing the plane. A second Flydubai flight between Dubai and Tel Aviv, FZ1081, has been diverted and is now returning to Dubai, according to Flightradar24.
"During the flight, as they approached the country, one of the pilots stabbed the other pilot. Apparently, he tried to crash the plane with its occupants," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a video statement issued by his office. According to Netanyahu, Saudi authorities have detained and interrogated the co-pilot.
After issuing an emergency alert, the plane did not land at Ben Gurion Airport this morning as planned but was diverted to Saudi Arabia. The investigation, in which the Mossad intervenes, investigates the motivation for the attack that triggered the fight between the pilots before the attacker was subdued by Israeli passengers who came to the cockpit.
Speaking to Channel 12 from the plane in Saudi Arabia, Israeli passenger Meital revealed that "a crew member tried to take control and crash the plane. Someone shouted stabbing and my husband understood right away, went to the cabin and together with other Israeli passengers neutralized the terrorist."
"The power went out on the plane, we heard screams: 'Stabs, blood!' Four Israelis took control of the situation and saved 180 people," said another passenger.
"The pilot is seriously injured," says Isaac while Israeli media broadcast images of passengers with blood on their clothes after having helped stop the attacker. One of them filmed the moments in which they were with the attacked and seriously injured pilot. "They tried to kill the pilot," said one with blood on his face after stopping the aggressor. Other images show the seconds of great tension following the loss of balance of the device that made a sudden, dry and dangerous descent. From the plane and still shocked by what she experienced at the heights, Noa is clear: "It was a terrorist attack."
"It is a miracle. An enormous tragedy has been avoided. We have been one step away from an event like 9/11 or July 1976," says an Israeli source, referring to the terrorist attacks in New York in 2001 and the hijacking of the Air France plane from Tel Aviv to Paris by a commando formed by Palestinians and Germans that was diverted to Entebbe. The main suspicion - not yet confirmed - is that the co-pilot, an Omani national, tried to take control of the plane and crash it with its almost 180 passengers on board, the vast majority of them Israelis.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held meetings with senior security officials, Minister Itamar Ben Gvir noted: "The naive conception that our enemies love life and must be pitied received an additional reminder this morning in the form of a terrorist who planned to crash a plane and kill the 180 Israelis on board."
Flight FZ1073 left Dubai at 6:05 for Israel, but at 8:31 it transmitted an emergency signal. Minutes later, he sent another more specific alert linked to a possible kidnapping. As established by the protocols in these cases, the Israeli Air Force sent several fighter jets to meet the suspected plane. Special anti-terrorist forces were urgently called to the Israeli airport. Shortly after and after losing contact with the pilot, the landing in Saudi Arabia was confirmed.
FlyDubai confirmed that its plane, a Boeing 737, "suffered an incident" and that it landed at Saudi Tabuk airport with all passengers safe. "Our teams are working closely with the relevant authorities. More updates will be published as additional confirmed information becomes available," a spokesperson for the company, which belongs to the Government of Dubai and is considered Emirates' low-cost sister airline, said in the morning.
Since the normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE in the so-called Abraham Accords in 2020, Dubai is a very popular destination among Israelis. Emirati flight companies are very active with numerous daily flights to Tel Aviv that, unlike lines from many other countries, did not stop during the war that began after the Hamas attack three years ago.
