An Indian pilot, identified as Captain Smit Machchhar, was stabbed by a co-pilot aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on September 30, 2026, before the aircraft made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu credits Machchhar with opening the cockpit door, allowing passengers to overpower the attacker.
Flydubai flight FZ1073 was roughly two and a half hours into its route from Dubai when it sent an emergency squawk code 7700, followed minutes later by code 7500 — the international signal for a hijacking. The plane, carrying 174 people, dropped about 5,200 meters in roughly two minutes, according to the Irish Times. It landed safely at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk, in northwest Saudi Arabia.
Israeli officials, speaking anonymously, told reporters one pilot stabbed the other and tried to do 9/11
, according to an account relayed to Channel 12 and reported by Yahoo News via the Jerusalem Post. Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, went further, calling it an attempted jihadist attack
whose perpetrator’s single objective
was to crash the plane and kill everyone aboard.
Captain Smit Machchhar Opens the Door, Then Collapses
The pilot who was stabbed has been named by India’s embassy in Riyadh as Smit Machchhar. Netanyahu, posting on X, said Machchhar fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster
, according to Al Jazeera.
He saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals. I wish Captain Machchhar a speedy and full recovery.
India’s embassy said Machchhar was admitted in a hospital in Tabuk city in northwest Saudi Arabia and receiving necessary medical attention
, adding that he was reported to be in stable condition while officials awaited a fuller health update, per Al Jazeera’s reporting.
Passenger Yoniv’s Account From Inside the Cockpit
The Mirror reported that Netanyahu met a passenger identified only as Yoniv, whom he called a great hero
for breaking into the cockpit. Yoniv described the scene he found there.
When I entered, I saw the attacker on the instruments, between the two seats…there were no pilots in the seats. One was down, one was on the instruments. And another guy came in with me. I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold, and pulled him – first and foremost – outside.
According to the Mirror, two other pilots who had been aboard ahead of a connecting flight out of Tel Aviv then helped take control of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and bring it down. One passenger told the outlet one of those pilots was British.
Passenger Miryam Shira Ohayon: We Were Either Going to Crash or Be Murdered
Passengers who spoke to reporters after landing described chaos and blood in the cabin. Miryam Shira Ohayon, reached by her mother’s phone at Tel Aviv airport, told the Irish Times what she saw.
She added that a doctor aboard treated the wounded pilot. Another traveler told I24 News, as relayed by Yahoo, that they were either going to crash or be murdered, describing it like a terrorist attack in mid-air. A separate passenger, quoted by the same outlet, said she and other Israelis near the front of the cabin neutralized the terrorist
after someone shouted a warning about the stabbing.
Who Is the Attacker? Sources Point to an Omani National, Still Unnamed
None of the four accounts identifies the attacker by name. Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Irish Times the suspect is an Omani national and that Israel’s working assessment treats the incident as terrorism. Yahoo reported the same nationality as an unconfirmed detail attributed to unnamed Israeli sources. Netanyahu said the suspect was arrested after the plane landed in Tabuk, according to Al Jazeera, but stopped short of naming him publicly in the material reviewed here.
Flydubai itself offered a markedly clinical account, confirming only that flight FZ1073 experienced an incident while en route
and that the aircraft has landed safely in Tabuk (TUU), and all passengers are safe and accounted for
, per the airline statement carried by Yahoo. That corporate restraint stands apart from the language used by Israeli officials, who spoke of a foiled 9/11 scenario
and a hijacking.
Eight Hours in Tabuk Before a Rescue Flight to Tel Aviv
Flydubai dispatched a second aircraft to ferry passengers on to Tel Aviv, but Yahoo reported that most refused to board initially, citing unease that neither the replacement plane nor its pilot were Israeli. The group eventually landed at Ben Gurion Airport at 15:34 GMT, roughly eight hours after the emergency landing, according to the Irish Times and Al Jazeera.
Netanyahu greeted the passengers personally at the airport — a gesture Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid dismissed as cheap politics
ahead of the country’s elections this month, according to Al Jazeera.
Israel’s Military Postpones a Washington Trip
The fallout extended beyond the airport. Israeli officials initially scrambled fighter jets after the emergency codes went out, fearing the aircraft might be diverted to a third country, before the prime minister’s office clarified the incident was not a hijacking in the conventional sense as details emerged.
None of the four sources reviewed states what, if anything, ties the attacker to that earlier warning, or what charges, if any, the suspect now faces in Saudi Arabia.