A Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv was diverted to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after one of the pilots stabbed the other and attempted to seize control of the aircraft, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the attacker was subdued before the plane landed safely. Roughly one hundred eighty Israeli passengers were aboard the flight, and Israeli officials have begun working to bring them home.
Reuters reported that an Israeli passenger aboard the flight recounted the moment a co-pilot from Dubai to Tel Aviv tried to crash the plane after stabbing the other pilot. The Washington Post reported that the flight carrying about one hundred eighty passengers made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after one of the pilots stabbed another and sought to hijack the plane before being subdued, a characterization Netanyahu has publicly advanced.
CBS News reported that the flight was diverted Wednesday after one of the pilots attempted to seize control of the aircraft and crash it, according to passengers on board and Israeli officials, and that both pilots were hospitalized after the plane landed safely in Saudi Arabia. ABC News reported roughly one hundred eighty Israeli passengers returned home after the flight was diverted to Saudi Arabia Wednesday morning, and that two people were admitted to a hospital in Saudi Arabia.
OANN carried passenger video showing what it described as the chaotic aftermath aboard the flight bound for Tel Aviv after a violent cockpit altercation forced the diversion and landing in Saudi Arabia. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also addressed the incident involving the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, according to that account. ABC News separately reported that the flight was diverted Wednesday morning after an incident took place inside the cockpit, citing an Israeli security source.
In an ABC News broadcast segment, Chief Foreign Correspondent Ian Pannell told viewers the picture increasingly looks like a terrorist incident, and that this is what Israel is calling it as details emerge. Pannell described how the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv made a sudden diversion after issuing emergency distress signals, and minutes after a general alert sent an emergency warning of a possible unlawful interference or hijacking. He said Netanyahu has stated that one pilot stabbed the other and tried to crash the plane, and that as the aircraft was about an hour from landing it suffered a rapid descent, plunging from thirty-four thousand to sixteen thousand feet in three minutes over Saudi Arabia. FlyDubai said an altercation had occurred on the flight deck, according to the segment.
Pannell cautioned viewers about distressing material, saying eyewitnesses described one of the pilots being stabbed with a knife and a lot of blood, and that fellow passengers disarmed the attacker. An Israeli passenger told Channel Twelve News in Israel, in remarks quoted in the broadcast, that there were moments when passengers were sure this was the end, that they heard screams and screams and then saw the cockpit door being opened with blood there. A woman identified as Yasmin Aboukassi, whose daughter was on the flight, described what her daughter told her: that the plane started to lose control amid screaming, that after a few minutes two other pilots took control, and that a few Israelis ran toward the man with the knife, took his hand, and put him on the floor with a lot of blood around. FlyDubai has said a crew member took control, diverting and landing the plane safely in Saudi Arabia.
Pannell said Israeli authorities are expected to send planes to retrieve the one hundred eighty Israeli citizens who were on board, noting there are no formal official relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and that everyone would presumably be in a cooperative mood. He said there will be questions about how one of the pilots or crew members was able to bring a pocket knife on board, what the motivation was, and whether the person was operating independently as a lone wolf. Netanyahu has said the nation will be on high alert for any other potential attacks, and Pannell noted the timing as the third anniversary of the October seventh attacks approaches. He called it a miracle that everyone managed to get onto land safe and well, with the two pilots hospitalized.
A second ABC News broadcast, from Ben-Gurion airport, described cheers and tears, a large crowd of family and well-wishers, and the Israeli flag flying high as passengers arrived. The correspondent said everyone will regard what happened as nothing short of a miracle despite the terror involved, and that firm details of exactly what took place in the cockpit are still awaited. According to that segment, an altercation broke out between the pilot and the first officer, but who started it and what their intentions were is not known for sure. Netanyahu has said one pilot stabbed the other with the intention of crashing the plane, and the correspondent noted the aircraft plummeted thousands of feet in a very short period, which appears to add weight to that theory.
The cockpit door was opened from the inside, according to multiple eyewitnesses who have given testimony, which the correspondent said implies either the first officer or the pilot opened it, allowing passengers to intervene. Another crew member was then able to take the reins of the flight and bring it safely to the ground. One crew member in the cockpit was Indian and the other is believed to be Omani, and both will face questioning, with heavy debriefing expected from the Israeli military and security services. The passengers were seen smiling and waving as they came out, and the correspondent said Tel Aviv and Israel will be breathing a huge sigh of relief that the episode ended without deaths or serious casualties.
A Reuters clip carried the account of a passenger who said the flight from Dubai was very calm for the first two hours, and then, upon reaching the Jordanian border, the aircraft dropped in what felt like massive turbulence for twenty to thirty seconds, balanced, dropped again for ten seconds, and balanced again. The passenger described a riot at the front of the aircraft with many people rushing there, said one pilot apparently stabbed the other, and that the crew member along with passengers regained control while a third pilot on the aircraft took control and diverted to Saudi Arabia. The passenger described a very warm welcome there, with medical care, tea, food, and calm among those aboard, and said the group was on the way back to Tel Aviv, safe and sound.
Other coverage has carried the accounts further. The BBC reported that as passengers arrived back in Israel, one man, still wearing a blood-stained T-shirt, told the prime minister how he helped stop the attack. The Jerusalem Post reported that the attacker was trying to push the other pilot out, apparently to take control alone, and that Israeli passengers sitting near the front rushed toward the struggle. Another Jerusalem Post report quoted an Israeli official saying a major disaster was avoided after a pilot stabbed his co-pilot and attempted to hijack the aircraft carrying more than one hundred Israeli passengers, with the plane making an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. Additional accounts described bloodied passengers storming the cockpit to subdue an Omani co-pilot suspected of trying to crash the Israel-bound jet, with the captain wounded and both pilots hospitalized in Saudi Arabia.
Next News Network could not independently verify the claim that a pilot stabbed the other pilot and attempted to bring down the aircraft. It is not yet known what motivated the attacker, whether anyone else was involved, or how a knife was brought aboard. Israeli officials have said the nation will be on high alert for further potential attacks.
Our Take
The establishment press spent the hours after this flight treating the word "terror" as something to be handled with tongs, and the reason is not hard to find. The story cuts against the prevailing instinct in Western newsrooms to soften or contextualize attacks on Israelis, and it landed days before the third anniversary of October seventh, when the same outlets spent a year explaining away the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. A plane full of Israeli families, a cockpit knife, a plunge of eighteen thousand feet over Saudi airspace, and passengers who had to storm the flight deck themselves because no one else could: that is not a complicated story, and it should not take a broadcast correspondent hemming about "increasingly looking like" anything to say so. Credit is due to Netanyahu for stating plainly what Israel is calling it, to Katz for speaking out, and to the Saudi authorities who, whatever their diplomatic position, took in the wounded and treated the passengers well. Above all, credit is due to the Israeli passengers who ran toward the danger and the crew member who flew the plane down.
