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What we know about stabbing on Flydubai flight to Israel
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[Figure caption]
By Henry Moore
Published 30 September 2026, 08:51 BST
Updated 2 hours ago
A flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv was diverted to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after one pilot stabbed the other and "apparently tried to crash the plane", Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.
The pilot was arrested and is being questioned by Saudi authorities, Netanyahu added. The plane's captain and first officer were injured and taken to hospital.
The airline and passengers
- The plane's owner: Flydubai
- Passengers: Confirmed safe and accounted for
Incident Details
- Flight: Flydubai's flight FZ1073
- Take-off: Dubai International Airport, United Arab Emirates, 03:05 GMT (07:05 local time)
- Destination: Ben-Gurion Airport, Israel
- Passengers: At least 150, almost all Israeli
Timeline of events
- 05:21: Rapid descent over Saudi Arabia, dropping 17,000 feet (over 5,000m) in two minutes.
- 05:21 - 05:40: Plane signalled emergency codes before looping back into Saudi Arabia and descending manually.
- 05:40: Plane returned to squawk 7700.
- 06:58: Diverted to Tabuk Airport, northeastern Saudi Arabia, and landed.
Passenger accounts
Yaniv Hayun, a passenger who was hailed as a hero by Netanyahu, described the attacker trying to destroy instruments to disable the plane. Hayun and others broke into the cockpit and overpowered the stabbed pilot.
Zvika Meness reported tying the attacker up with seatbelts after he collapsed. Another pilot took control of the aircraft.