JERUSALEM — The harrowing midair drama on Flight 1073 to Tel Aviv, as retold by passenger witnesses and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sounded almost unbelievable: The co-pilot stabbed the captain in the cockpit, then tried to crash the plane before passengers subdued him and backup pilots landed safely in Saudi Arabia.
With passengers’ lives spared and the hero pilot and alleged attacker hospitalized, investigators in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel were trying to piece together Thursday how — in the post-9/11 era of tightened security — such an attack could have happened.
Several lapses were already in focus.
The co-pilot, whom Israeli officials have identified as an Omani national, should not have been allowed to fly to Tel Aviv under Israeli protocols that prohibit citizens from countries that do not have diplomatic ties with Israel to land in Tel Aviv. Oman has not normalized relations with Israel.
It was also not clear how the co-pilot brought a weapon on board — or whether he did. Videos of the aftermath of Wednesday’s attack, circulating online, showed the pilot bleeding, and passengers said he had been stabbed.
While Saudi and Emirati investigators have yet to confirm many details from the incident, the initial accounts point to significant security breaches. Flights from Dubai to Tel Aviv have flourished in the five years since the United Arab Emirates and Israel normalized relations in 2020, analysts say. Flydubai, owned by the Emirati government, alone flies 10 round trips a day.
On Wednesday, the airline suspended its flights to Israel.
Investigators, meanwhile, zeroed in on the key questions.
“It’s right now at the center of the investigation of the joint team of Omani security services and Mossad: How is it possible for a guy of this nationality to fly the aircraft?” said Oded Ailam, a former head of counterterrorism at Mossad, the Israeli external intelligence agency. “One of the theories is that he had two passports, but that has to be answered in order to eliminate further incidents.”
On Thursday, Israeli media reported that the suspect may have used an emergency ax that was already in the cockpit to carry out the attack.
Ailam said that whatever weapon had been found needed to be investigated but noted that passengers, pilots and other aircraft crew typically undergo the same level of checks at airport security.
So far, Israeli officials have refrained from criticizing potential screening failures, either in Flydubai’s hiring process or at the terminal of Dubai International Airport.
In television interviews Wednesday, Netanyahu highlighted the fact that up to 1 million Israelis have traveled to Dubai, and he praised the UAE and its carrier for keeping flights running even during the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
Netanyahu said UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan invited Israel to join the Emirati investigation once the suspect is transferred to the Emirates. The Omani suspect is being held and interrogated by Saudi authorities.
Tzvika Manes, who was sitting in the first row of business class with his family, recalled that his wife was waiting for the bathroom outside the cockpit when she screamed: “They’re stabbing the pilot! They’re stabbing the pilot!’”
The cockpit door was open, apparently because the wounded captain, identified as an Indian citizen, Smit Machchhar, had managed to release it despite his injuries, said Manes, who is the head of underwriting at Israel’s Bank Leumi.
Under normal conditions, the cockpit door on the plane, a Boeing 737 Max 8, uses a dead bolt that can be locked from the cockpit side, according to a 2025 Boeing manual for flight attendants.
Manes said his wife then alerted another pilot who was outside the cockpit and unaware of what was happening. Yaniv Hayun, an Israeli plumber, also jumped into the fray, according to witness accounts, apparently placing the attacker in a chokehold.
“He snapped into action, and at that very second, the plane started to dive,” Manes recalled. “The relief pilot and Yaniv Hayun overpowered the attacker, and the pilot stabilized the plane.”
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