A pilot brawl, then a rapid descent: passengers recount chaos on flydubai flight
Passengers rushed to the cockpit after the plane plunged more than 14,000 feet in 30 seconds, subduing the co-pilot and allowing a reserve crew to land safely in Saudi Arabia. A plane, carrying passengers who were on the FlyDubai aircraft bound for Israel from the United Arab Emirates, which was diverted to Saudi Arabia following an emergency signal, on the tarmac as it arrives at the Ben Gurion International Airport, in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel, September 30, 2026. Reuters
When flydubai flight FZ1073 suddenly plunged from over30,000 feet on Wednesday, passenger Almog Italie said it felt like the planewas passing through “massive turbulence” before he realised a life-or-deathstruggle had unfolded in the cockpit.
Italie described passengers running to the front of thecabin and commotion in front of the cockpit, where Israeli officials said theco-pilot had stabbed the captain to try to crash the plane flying from Dubai toTel Aviv with more than 170 Israelis on board.
“It was dropping like for 20, 30 seconds, and thenbalanced, and then started dropping again, and balanced again, and then we sawthat (there) are people in the front, directly (in front of ) the cockpit,” hetold Reuters. “Crew members and passengers from the front of the airplane tookover and got control of the two pilots.”
Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israeli primeminister’s office, said the wounded captain, bloodied and lying on the floor,had drawn on “the last moments of his energy” to click open the release on thecockpit door.
“At that moment, some of the passengers that realisedsomething was happening raced forward, entered the pilot’s cabin. They saw theinjured pilot on the ground, and the other … the attacking pilot was standing overthe control panel, bashing the control panel,” he said.
A passenger subdued the attacker, he said.
A video filmed on board and verified by Reuters capturedthe aftermath.
In it, two wounded men are seen lying on the floor,both bloodied. A voice speaking in Hebrew off camera says one of them is thepilot “they tried to murder”. A voice off camera identifies the other as theattacker, lying on his side with three stripes on his epaulette, indicatingthat he is a co-pilot.
“We were attacked now, on this airplane, they tried tomurder the pilot, and we took control of the team/staff,” a man in a blackshirt with blood on his face says.
Another man says: “We’re standing here, no one is goingto pass through the pilot’s door.”
Reserve crew
A reserve flydubai crew that had been on board tookcontrol of the plane and landed it safely at Tabuk Airport (TUU), a flydubaispokesperson said.
A playback of the flight posted on flight-trackingwebsite flightradar24 showed the plane cruising at 34,000 feet heading westwardsover Saudi Arabia when it dropped more than 14,000 feet in 30 seconds, beforeveering northwest. It briefly crossed into Jordan, then returned to Saudiairspace and flew to Tabuk.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the attemptedattack “was thwarted solely thanks to the heroism of several Israelipassengers who stormed the cockpit, subdued the terrorist, and — with their ownhands — restored control of the aircraft to an additional flight crew presenton board”.
“According to our preliminary information, the terroristhad a single objective: to crash the plane,” he said in a statement.
Flydubai said in a statement that the underlying reasonsfor the event remained unknown and warned against “premature speculation”.
Italie said the reserve crew “took over the airplane andbalanced it”.
“It was quite scary, but not for long. Most of thepassengers kept calm and were very supportive to each other. And when then welanded in Saudi Arabia, which we got a very very warm welcome with a lot of medicalstaff and food and anything we needed, and we’re waiting for the flight backto Tel Aviv,” he said.
21.63°C Kathmandu
