Flydubai Flight FZ1073, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 from Dubai International to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, left Dubai around 7:05 a.m. local time Wednesday with roughly 174 to 180 people on board, including about 27 children and a large Israeli passenger load. About two and a half hours in, while the jet was still over northwestern Saudi Arabia near the Jordanian border, the flight deck exploded into violence.
Israeli officials told Reuters the co-pilot is believed to have stabbed the captain and tried to take the airplane. Passenger accounts describe a small knife, repeated stabbing, and an attempt to force the wounded captain out of the cockpit as the jet pitched into a dive.
Flight-tracking data shows the aircraft dropped on the order of 14,000 to 17,000 feet in under a minute from roughly 33,000–34,000 feet. The transponder flashed 7700, the general emergency code, then briefly 7500, the international hijack alert, before reverting to 7700. Israeli fighter jets were scrambled. The airplane later landed at Tabuk’s Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Airport around 9:45 a.m. local time. All passengers were accounted for. Both cockpit crew members were taken to a hospital.
Who the pilots were
The first wave of Israeli television reporting, Channel 12 / N12, said the cockpit pairing was Russian and Ukrainian. That version spread fast. It does not match the later Israeli security briefings. Ynet, Channel 12 follow-ups, Reuters-cited officials, and multiple Indian and Israeli outlets now identify the suspected attacker as an Omani co-pilot who had been at flydubai for less than a year, about nine months in some accounts. The captain is described as Emirati and of Indian origin; some Israeli and Indian reports say he is an Indian national.
Flydubai has not released names or nationalities. Russia’s consulate in Dubai told TASS there were no Russians on the flight. The Russian-Ukrainian detail appears to have been mixed up with two off-duty pilots traveling in the cabin who later took the controls. Those relief pilots have been described variously as European, including one British, or as Russian and Ukrainian. Their identities have not been officially released.
Was it a terror attack?
Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office first said this was not a conventional hijacking. That is still the distinction officials are drawing: no outside team seized the cabin. The working theory inside the Israeli security establishment is darker. Three Israeli officials told Reuters the current assessment is an attempted “terror attack,” not a mental-health episode. An official speaking to Channel 12 put it in blunt terms: one pilot stabbed the other and “tried to do a 9/11.” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called the co-pilot a terrorist who meant to crash the plane and kill the Israelis on board.
The IDF, Shin Bet, and Mossad are all investigating. Saudi authorities are holding and questioning the crew in Tabuk. There is no confirmed public evidence tying the co-pilot to Iran or another foreign service. Motive is still unproven. What investigators do have is the knife attack, the dive, the 7500 squawk, and a plane full of Israelis.
How the plane was savedPassengers near the front said they heard shouting, then forced their way toward the flight deck as the jet dropped. Several Israelis helped pull the attacker out of the cockpit and pin him. Video circulating from the cabin shows the captain bloodied, on oxygen, with passengers standing guard at the cockpit door and telling others to film. An Israeli dentist on board reportedly treated the stabbed captain. Two off-duty flydubai pilots who had been sitting in the cabin took the airplane and flew it to Tabuk. Photos later showed apparent damage around the tail and rudder after the high-speed dive. Retired Navy F/A-18 pilot Matthew “Whiz” Buckley, appearing on Fox, called the descent “incredibly violent” and said radar indicated the jet blew past its maximum operating speed by about 100 knots.
The political aftershockOman has no diplomatic relations with Israel. That fact is now the second investigation. Transportation Minister Miri Regev has told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that flydubai may have violated Israel-UAE aviation arrangements that, Israeli officials say, limit Israel-route crews to passport holders from countries that recognize Israel. Regev has pushed to halt flydubai flights into Israel pending a review. A replacement jet was sent to Tabuk; some passengers refused to board another flydubai aircraft and wanted an Israeli-controlled flight home. Netanyahu’s office said the situation was under control and that Israel was working to bring its citizens back.
Flydubai’s public line has stayed tight: FZ1073 “experienced an incident while en route,” landed safely at Tabuk, and all passengers are safe. The airline says it is cooperating with authorities and has not confirmed the stabbing, the nationalities, or the terror allegation.
Bottom line: The Russian-versus-Ukrainian cockpit fight that first went around the world was an early miss. The latest official Israeli picture is an Omani first officer stabbing an Indian-origin Emirati captain on a Tel Aviv-bound jet packed with Israeli passengers, a near-vertical dive, a hijack code, and a live terror investigation. Names are still unofficial. Intent is still being investigated. The plane, and the people on it, made it to the ground.
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