One of the pilots of a plane flying from the UAE to Israel stabbed his co-pilot and tried to crash the plane, a passenger on the flight said, as Israeli officials said they were investigating if 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 by Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz international airport, more commonly known as Tabuk airport.
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 either 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.
The plane also abruptly descended, falling about 17,000 ft in a two-minute span, before diverting from Jordanian airspace towards Tabuk airport, in north-western Saudi Arabia, where it landed safely. Israeli officials told Reuters that the cabin crew took control of the cockpit and helped land the plane after the attack.
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.
“The co-pilot tried to murder the pilot and basically carry out a suicide attack on the plane,” passenger Miryam Shira Ohayon told reporters via her mother’s phone at Tel Aviv airport.
“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 said, adding that a doctor on board treated the wounded pilot.
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.
Israeli authorities have so far refrained from publicly calling the alleged attack a suspected terror incident, besides the far-right national security minister. Itamar Ben-Gvir. Ben-Gvir said on X that “terrorism is a devil with whom no agreement must be reached”, referring to the incident.
The head of the Israeli military, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, postponed his planned 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 circumstances of the brawl between the pilots were unclear, with passengers recounting confusing moments and blood being spilt.
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.
Pictures published by Israeli media showed a passenger wearing a blood-soaked shirt. The Guardian could not independently verify the image.
The incident came just days after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin 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 like 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.
