The co-pilot who stabbed the captain of an Israel-bound FlyDubai flight this week used an emergency crash ax in an effort to take over the plane, an official in the United Arab Emirates said on Saturday, describing the attack as a “terrorist operation.”
“The co-pilot initiated the execution of his plot during the flight, assaulting the pilot inside the cockpit using an emergency crash ax and attempting to take control of the aircraft’s flight controls,” Hamad Saif Al-Shamsi, the Emirati attorney general, said in remarks carried by state media.
The Emirati authorities have been investigating the event since Wednesday, when the co-pilot’s attack led the plane to plummet thousands of feet with more than 170 passengers on board, mostly Israelis. A handful of people stormed the cabin, subduing the attacker and assisting the wounded captain before the flight crew made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
Crash axes are generally stored in the cockpits of planes for emergencies. Experts say the axes are often kept behind the co-pilot on the flight deck, covered but unlocked — meaning the assailant could have had relatively easy access.
Mr. al-Shamsi did not identify the co-pilot, who was later brought back to the Emirates. Israeli officials have identified him as an Omani citizen and said his assault likely aimed to crash the plane and kill everyone on board. It is still unclear whether he acted alone or with the backing of any of Israel’s regional foes.
The cockpit assault has riveted Israel and deepened anxieties about the safety of Israelis abroad, even aboard carriers from countries that maintain open diplomatic ties with the country. It has also prompted questions about how the co-pilot slipped through tight security screenings.
In a video message released Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said that the flight’s Omani co-pilot had been radicalized by Islamist ideology. But he did not say whether anyone else was behind the attack.
FlyDubai became the first Emirati airline to fly to Tel Aviv in November 2020, roughly two months after Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab countries. The low-cost carrier operated up to 10 daily flights between Tel Aviv and Dubai, allowing Israelis easier travel routes to Asia.
FlyDubai largely kept up that service to Israel despite three years of war in the Middle East, even as other carriers canceled or reduced their flights to Tel Aviv, especially after the onset of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in February. But the airline suspended flights to Tel Aviv until further notice after Wednesday’s attack.
The Emirates is home to a small but growing Israeli and Jewish population, but their sense of safety in the Persian Gulf nation was rattled in recent years amid Israel’s war in Gaza. Last year, the Emirati government sentenced three Uzbek nationals to death for the abduction and “premeditated murder with terrorist intention” of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi in 2024.
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