JERUSALEM — A flight carrying about 180 passengers to Tel Aviv from Dubai made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after one of the pilots stabbed another and sought to hijack the plane before being subdued, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
One of the pilots “apparently tried to crash the aircraft with everyone on board,” Netanyahu said in a video address, adding that he spoke to an Israeli passenger who, along with a crew member, “managed to force their way into the cockpit, and together they subdued the pilot who had carried out the stabbing as he was trying to sabotage the plane’s systems.”
Nearly all of the passengers on board were Israeli, Netanyahu added. All passengers arrived in Tel Aviv on an alternate Flydubai flight Wednesday evening.
Flydubai Flight 1073 began a sharp descent from 34,000 feet roughly two hours and 20 minutes after takeoff, and briefly entered a nosedive over the desert near the Saudi Arabia-Jordan border. It lost half its altitude in less than two minutes, publicly available flight data showed.
The plane stabilized after 10 minutes of erratic flying, and someone in the cockpit activated the 7700 and 7500 emergency distress codes, signaling “general emergency” and “unlawful interference,” according to Flightradar24.com. The plane, a Boeing 737 Max, eventually landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
The suspect, the co-pilot who attacked the captain on the flight, was an Omani national, said an Israeli security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive details. Only pilots from countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Israel — Oman does not — are usually allowed to land there. The airline did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.
Netanyahu later identified the pilot who was stabbed as Capt. Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, and credited him for saving 174 lives.
“Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, [Machchhar] fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster… He is a true hero,” Netanyahu wrote on X.
Israeli officials are investigating the possibility of a terrorist attack, a person familiar with the matter said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
“At this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation,” Flydubai said in a statement, adding that the aircraft was “successfully secured by on-duty Flydubai crew travelling on the flight.”
Videos filmed on the flight, circulating online, show two injured people lying on the aircraft floor, covered in blood and wearing oxygen masks.
“We’re here during a hijacking of the plane,” one of the men attending to the injured says to the camera. “At this moment, we’ve taken control over the terrorist. … All passengers on the plane are live and well except for the pilot.”
Eyal Datz, 44, an Israeli filmmaker on the flight, said he felt the plane suddenly plummeting and “shaking wildly” even though there was “no turbulence, no announcement, no seat belt sign. … It was clear something was happening.”
“Some guys who had been sitting in the front rows realized what was going on, that the pilot did the stabbing,” Datz recalled.
He said the crew opened the cockpit door, and three Israeli passengers helped overpower the assailant and handcuffed him. Then, another person who was in the cabin took control of the plane, Datz said.
Netanyahu said that “additional aircrew” had “managed to stabilize the plane,” without giving further details. The airline has not said who landed the plane.
During the cockpit struggle, “the plane dived sharply,” said Datz, who was returning to Israel from Bangkok and spoke to The Post from the tarmac in Saudi Arabia. “It was a near-death experience.”
The 7500 distress code, which is used to signal a possible hijacking, set off alarms at the highest levels, with the Israeli Air Force ordering fighter jets toward the passenger plane, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his senior security officials holding urgent meetings.
An Israeli military official said its fighter jets had turned back before the plane landed at Tabuk.
Tabuk airport said in a statement that the captain and co-pilot who had sustained injuries were sent to a hospital for medical treatment.
The hijacking alarm spiked fears amid the ongoing U.S.-led war against Iran, and raised memories of the 1960s and 1970s, when flights to and from Israel were frequently seized by Palestinian militants.
Hijackings have since declined significantly because of improved security measures at airports and on board planes.
“Details still unclear but Israelis on board helped subdue the copilot who apparently tried to take over the plane. Could have been a horrific incident but everyone safe,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee wrote on X.
Amy B Wang in Washington and Imogen Piper in London contributed to this report.
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