A flydubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 prepares to land at Ben Gurion Airport in Lod, Israel, on Sept. 30, 2026. (Credit: Jack Guez/AFP)
No motive has yet been determined for an apparent attempt to crash the flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday, and an initial assessment suggested the co-pilot who stabbed the captain acted alone, Israeli officials said on Thursday.
The wounded captain managed to unlock the cockpit door, allowing passengers to subdue the attacker and a reserve crew that had been aboard to land the plane in Saudi Arabia.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacker was being investigated in Saudi Arabia, where the plane, with more than 170 people on board, landed safely at Tabuk airport. Netanyahu said he believed the attacker would be taken to the United Arab Emirates.
Two Israeli security officials said Israel's initial assessment is that the co-pilot was likely acting alone, though the investigation was still ongoing.
Israel's envoy to the UAE, Yossi Shelley, told Reuters it was too early to draw conclusions and no motive had been determined. Another Israeli official said Israel was not receiving all the information it sought from the Saudis and that Israeli intelligence services, Mossad and Shin Bet, were investigating the incident as well.
The Saudi government's media office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The flight plunged nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds during the incident as it flew over Saudi Arabia on the journey from the United Arab Emirates to Israel.
In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Netanyahu said Israel would be "following and possibly also participating in this investigation."
Asked if there was any indication of Iranian involvement, Netanyahu said it was too early to say. "We'll get to the root of this attacker, whether he had accomplices, whether Iran was behind it. I think we'll find out very soon," Netanyahu said.
There have been no official suggestions from Israel of Iranian involvement.
The two Israeli security officials said Israel had not identified any Iranian involvement so far.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that Israel's preliminary information indicated that the co-pilot aimed to crash the plane, describing him as a terrorist, though Netanyahu only described it as "a serious security incident."
Iran's permanent mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.
UAE investigating possible 'planning or direction'
The UAE has started investigations that are seeking to establish the circumstances and motives and determine "whether the incident was linked to any terrorist activity or purpose, or involved prior planning or direction," the UAE state news agency reported on Thursday.
UAE judicial authorities have jurisdiction over the incident because the aircraft is registered in the UAE and flies under its flag, the statement said, adding that UAE law applies to crimes committed on board even if they occur outside the country's territory.
On Wednesday, an Israeli official identified the attacker as an Omani national.
Omani authorities have not commented on the report.
Saudi Arabia has issued no statements on its investigations.
Saudi Arabia's Tabuk airport said on Wednesday that both pilots had been hospitalized after sustaining injuries.
Flydubai said on Wednesday that the underlying reasons for the event remained unknown and warned against "premature speculation."
Captain hailed as a hero
Netanyahu and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have hailed the flight FZ1073 captain and Indian national Smit Machchhar as a hero. India's ambassador to the UAE met Captain Machchhar's family and briefed him on his health and recovery, the Indian consulate in the UAE said.
Netanyahu, in his interview with Fox News, said Machchhar had apparently been stabbed or hit with an axe by the other pilot and had bled profusely.
Israel has also lauded passengers who subdued the attacker.
Yaniv Hayun, one of the men who incapacitated the attacker, described running to the cockpit as the plane nosedived.
"We pulled the assailant out, I pulled him out. After I pulled him out we took control of the plane, I pulled up the yoke [steering control of the plane], I straightened the plane out a bit," he said, talking to reporters upon his return to Israel on Wednesday.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Thursday he would present "heroism" awards to five Israelis who helped overpower a flydubai co-pilot and prevented him from crashing the plane they were on.
"You put yourselves at risk to save others and prevented a terrible disaster. Today, the whole world saw the beautiful and courageous face of Israeli society," Herzog, who holds a largely ceremonial role, said in a statement.
"I am proud of you, and I thank you on behalf of the State of Israel."
He also hailed the plane's Indian pilot, Smit Machchhar, who Israeli officials say managed to open the cockpit door to let passengers and crew save the plane after being stabbed by the co-pilot.
Machchhar was covered with blood on the floor when he managed to click the release to open the cockpit door, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Reuters. That allowed passengers and crew to overpower the co-pilot and enable a second pair of flydubai pilots who were on board to land the jet in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
"He saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals," Netanyahu said in a post on X. "All passengers are out of harm's way," he had earlier said in a video statement released by his office.
In a post on X early on Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded Machchhar, calling him a "hero."
"In the face of the gravest danger and despite being seriously injured, he showed immense courage and an unwavering resolve to protect the lives of others. His valour helped save hundreds of lives and avert a great tragedy," Modi said.
Indian authorities in Saudi Arabia said Machchhar is receiving necessary medical attention in a hospital in the northwestern city of Tabuk and they are in touch with his family and Saudi authorities to extend all possible help.
He is reported to be stable, the Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia said in a post on X.
Machchhar, who hails from India's financial capital Mumbai, underwent surgery after the incident, Indian newspaper the Hindustan Times reported.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Machchhar worked with India's SpiceJet airline for over 11 years before joining flydubai.
Herzog's office initially announced four award winners but later announced a fifth, Tali Manes, whose husband was among the originally named recipients.
Manes, his office said, heard the commotion in the cockpit and was the first to alert passengers and call for help.
Among the other Israelis to receive the Presidential Award for Civilian Heroism is Yaniv Hayoun, a plumber who says he beat and pinned down the co-pilot after breaking into the cockpit.
Yanoun, wearing a still-bloody shirt, was personally welcomed on his return to Israel Wednesday at Ben Gurion Airport by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The passengers said they rushed to the cockpit after a woman screamed and said there was a stabbing.
"It was an extraordinary incident," Asaf Rajuan, who helped pin down the attacker and will also receive the award, told Herzog, according to the president's office.
"We felt helpless, suspended in midair, and I didn't know who to turn to. But it was all instinct: to survive, to save the family, the people, and the children."
Speaking on the "Fox & Friends" TV show, Netanyahu said the co-pilot was being interrogated, but said "we know that he underwent Islamist radical indoctrination," adding that "the attacker, he calls out to the aircrew, 'Kill me, kill me,'" making it "clear he was suicidal."
Israelis swelling with pride
Israelis swelled with pride Thursday after passengers wrested control of a plane to prevent near-certain death, days before the anniversary of the October 7 attack, their country's worst-ever security failure.
For many Israelis, the foiled disaster on the flydubai plane bolstered their view that their country is exceptional, that with their can-do spirit — and nearly universal military training — they can save themselves against all odds.
Israelis posted online memes about the plane heroics, with several showing mock aircraft seating maps, inviting foreign passengers to choose those next to Israelis.
"I don't know if you'll be the next hijacked, but make sure an Israeli is sitting next to you," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Fox News.
Netanyahu, weeks away from a tight election, quickly moved to bask in the national mood, personally heading to the airport Wednesday where cheering crowds greeted the passengers by waving Israeli flags.
President Isaac Herzog, who holds a mostly ceremonial role, said he would present the Presidential Award for Civilian Heroism to five passengers who started the charge for the cockpit as the plane's co-pilot appeared set to crash the plane bound for Tel Aviv.
"You put yourselves at risk to save others and prevented a terrible disaster. Today, the whole world saw the beautiful and courageous face of Israeli society," Herzog said.
Among the five was Yaniv Hayoun, who quickly emerged as a made-for-television hero, a plumber who said he beat and pinned down the co-pilot.
Israelis also praised the plane's Indian pilot, Smit Machchhar, who officials said managed to open the cockpit and let in passengers after the co-pilot stabbed him and tried to take control.
Hayoun was still wearing a bloodied T-shirt and blue jeans as Netanyahu, in suit and tie, gave him a bear hug in a side room at Ben Gurion Airport.
"You are a hero. How did you do this?" Netanyahu asked him.
Hayoun responded with language reminiscent of Netanyahu's, telling him, "We are a people of lions."
Of beating the co-pilot, he also told the prime minister: "Unfortunately we didn't succeed in killing him, but it will take him awhile to recover."
Shifting narrative from Oct. 7
The Yediot Ahranoth daily put Hayoun in his dirty T-shirt on its front page Inside, it ran a cartoon of Netanyahu standing in the shadow of the dates "October 7" and shouting, "Look, a plane!" as a flydubai aircraft whizzed by.
Israelis have taken pride for decades in defending their borders as well as themselves overseas in the face of frequent threats. El Al, the national carrier, boasts of stringent security with armed air marshals on board.
Yair Golan, the leader of the opposition center-left Democrats Party, said he was "feeling filled with pride" over Israeli bravery on the plane, likening it to the "spirit of cooperation" seen after Oct. 7.
Golan decried attempts by Netanyahu to "score cheap political points at the expense of this heroism."
For ordinary Israelis, the plane episode spoke to the "national character."
"It's a good thing we have people who go to the army," Lea Michaelov said at a Tel Aviv cafe.
"If it would have happened in another country, how would it have ended?"
The incident has a parallel to United Airlines Flight 93, one of four planes hijacked in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, but which passengers deliberately brought down after realizing it would target a high-profile site below.
The flydubai flight had the good fortune to have additional pilots among the passengers in preparation to take another flight, and they successfully landed in Saudi Arabia.
