Passengers on a flydubai flight reached Israel safely onWednesday after customers and crew foiled a co-pilot’s attempt to crash theaircraft, Israeli officials said, in a struggle that began when he stabbed thepilot and sent the jet plunging ​nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds.

Passengers and crew entered the cockpit, overpowered theco-pilot and enabled a second pair of flydubai pilots who were aboard theflight to land the jet ‌safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, Israeli officials said.

More than 10 hours later, the passengers arrived at TelAviv’s Ben Gurion Airport aboard a flydubai replacement aircraft, with severaldescribing the episode as a miracle and recounting a frantic struggle toprevent a catastrophe.

Israeli officials said the attacker’s motive aboardflight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv remained under investigation. Israel andthe United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, signed the Abraham Accordsnormalizing relations in 2020.

The incident sharpened concerns about global aviationsecurity in a region scarred by years of conflict, prompting ​Israel to tightenchecks on pilots flying into the country.

“I just can say that it was a miracle. It was awful,crazy, and we thank God that we survived it, we didn’t think we will make ​itbut thank God we are in Israel. We are back home. And we are happy to seeeveryone here,” passenger Lital Shachaf said.

Israel’s ambulance service said a 51-year-old man wastaken to an Israeli hospital to be treated for injuries to his upper body. Theman was in a “mild condition,” it said.

Describing the event as “a serious security incident,”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saudi authorities would interrogate ​theco-pilot.

Flydubai said in a statement that the underlying reasonsfor the event remained unknown and warned against “premature speculation.” AnIsraeli official identified the co-pilot as an Omani national. There was noimmediate comment from Oman.

Israeli officials applauded the passengers, ​who theycredited with avoiding a much more serious disaster. Netanyahu said there were174 people on board the flight from Dubai, most of them Israeli nationals.

US President Donald Trump said he spoke “at length” withNetanyahu on Wednesday about the incident. He proceeded to give reporters inthe Oval Office a detailed account of what happened, adding: “This is the storythat I heard — I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s the story that I got fromBibi (Netanyahu).”

‘Something you do without thinking’

A Netanyahu spokesperson told Reuters that the woundedcaptain, identified by the ​Israeli leader’s office as Smit Machchhar, anIndian national, was covered with blood on the floor when he managed to clickthe release to open the cockpit door. Passengers who entered found the co-pilotbashing at the plane’s control ​panel, the spokesperson said. “This issomething you do without thinking, just running to save your daughter’s life,your family’s life,” said Asaf Rajuan, one of the passengers who helpedrestrain the attacker. He spoke with a forehead still bloodied from thestruggle.

Netanyahu’s office released ‌a video showing the primeminister at Ben Gurion Airport giving a hug to another passenger, Yaniv Hayun,who his office said “broke into” the cockpit. “I see you and I see a lion – abig hero,” Netanyahu told the man, who was still wearing the blood-stainedshirt he had on during the flight.

Flydubai operates daily return flights between Dubai andTel Aviv, a route that is popular among Israeli nationals. The flight pathnormally uses airspace over Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

It is not the first time a flight between Israel and theUAE has landed in Saudi Arabia. A flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv madean emergency landing in Riyadh in September 2025 due to a medical incident,Israeli media reported at the ​time.

Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk airport, where the plane landed,said both ​pilots had been hospitalised after sustaining injuries.

The incident heightened security fears in Israel weeksbefore Israelis vote in the first election since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023,attacks, with Israel’s security figuring prominently in the campaigning.

Responding to the incident on X, far-right securityminister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote, “Terrorism is a devil with whom no agreementmust be reached”.

Israel to tighten checks on pilots flying to Israel

Israeli media published conflicting reports ​on theincident, with some outlets reporting that a pilot had tried to crash thepassenger plane in an alleged suicide attempt. Some Israeli media outletsinitially identified ​the pilots as Omani and Emirati nationals, while otherssaid they were Russian and Ukrainian.

“Every pilot that is going to be flying into Israel, weare going to know the pilots’ identities, know who they are, and do some typeof security check,” Doron Spielman, a Netanyahu spokesperson, told Reuters.

Netanyahu met on Sunday with UAE President SheikhMohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during a rare visit to the Gulf country. Israel andthe UAE have forged close security, military and economic ties sinceestablishing diplomatic ties.

Israel provided the UAE earlier this year with Iron​Dome air-defence systems and Israeli personnel to operate them, helping defendagainst Iranian attacks launched after Israel and the US began strikes on Iran.

The UAE ​government had yet to comment on the flydubaiincident, while the Dubai state-owned airline said an “altercation” occurred inthe cockpit and the flight subsequently diverted to Tabuk, where it landedsafely. The UAE’s aviation regulator, the GCAA, said the flight “experienced asecurity incident that was brought under control”.