Israel vows to ‘uncover motive’ behind flydubai cockpit attack as UAE opens probe

JERUSALEM/DUBAI: Israeli authorities have vowed to establish the motive and background of a co-pilot accused of stabbing the captain of a flydubai passenger plane travelling to Israel, while the United Arab Emirates has launched an investigation into the incident.

The attack occurred on Wednesday aboard flydubai flight FZ1073, which was carrying more than 170 people from Dubai to Tel Aviv. The incident raised concerns that the aircraft could have been deliberately brought down.

The captain, despite being injured, managed to regain access to the cockpit, allowing passengers to restrain the attacker. A reserve crew member then took control and diverted the aircraft to Saudi Arabia, where it landed safely at Tabuk airport.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the suspect was being investigated in Saudi Arabia and was expected to be transferred to the UAE, where the aircraft is registered.

“We’ll be following and possibly also participating in this investigation,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

The UAE has said its authorities have jurisdiction over the case because the aircraft was registered in the country. Prosecutors are expected to examine the suspect’s motives and whether the incident had any possible links to terrorism.

Netanyahu said it was too early to determine whether Iran had any connection to the incident, adding that investigators would seek to establish whether the suspect had acted alone or had accomplices.

“We’ll get to the root of this attacker,” Netanyahu said, adding that investigators would determine whether anyone else was involved and whether there was any Iranian connection.

There has been no official indication from Israel that Iran was involved in the incident.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that preliminary information suggested the co-pilot had intended to crash the aircraft and described him as a terrorist. Netanyahu, however, referred to the episode more cautiously as a “serious security incident”.

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.

The flight plunged nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds as it flew over Saudi Arabia before the passengers and crew managed to subdue the attacker and land the plane.

Saudi Arabia has issued no statements on its investigations.

Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk airport said on Wednesday that both pilots had been hospitalised after sustaining injuries.

Flydubai said on Wednesday that the underlying reasons for the event remained unknown and warned against “premature speculation”.

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

The US and Israel launched strikes against Iran in February, in a conflict that quickly spread to the Gulf and Lebanon, where Israel has been fighting Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

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.

My salute to the Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his extraordinary bravery.

Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air…

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) September 30, 2026

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.