Pilot Stabbing
A pilot stabs his co-pilot and tries to crash a Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight, forcing an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
Israeli passenger Miryam Shira Ohayon watched a co-pilot try to kill the man beside him on Wednesday. The Flydubai flight, FZ 1073, was headed from Dubai to Tel Aviv when it dropped from nearly 34,000 feet to below 17,000 feet in about a minute, according to Flightradar24 data cited by DW. Passengers wrestled control from the attacker. A doctor onboard treated the wounded pilot. Ohayon told reporters the co-pilot tried to "basically carry out a suicide attack on the plane," the Guardian reported.
Both pilots were wounded. Flydubai and airport operator Cluster2 said they were taken to a hospital after the Boeing 737 MAX 8 made an emergency landing at Tabuk Airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, according to NBC News.
Israeli officials are investigating whether the attack targeted Israelis specifically, the Guardian reported. Defense Minister Israel Katz called it an "attempted jihadist attack." The terrorist, Katz said, "had a single objective: to crash the plane, killing everyone onboard," and he credited passengers' heroism for stopping him, according to the Guardian. Unnamed Israeli officials identified the attacker as an Omani national. Neither Oman nor the United Arab Emirates has commented.
Nailing down who was flying the plane proved harder. DW reported conflicting accounts of the pilots' nationalities, with some outlets naming a Russian and a Ukrainian and others naming an Omani and an Emirati.
About two and a half hours after leaving Dubai, the jet sent a general emergency signal, then a second code signaling a possible hijacking, the Guardian reported. Israel scrambled fighter jets in response, fearing an attack, before officials ruled out a hijacking, according to NBC News.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said it was monitoring the situation and working to bring Israeli passengers home safely, according to NBC News and DW. Saudi authorities were questioning the pilot accused of the attack, Netanyahu said, the Guardian reported. Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Israel's military chief, postponed a planned trip to Washington next week over the incident.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee put the region on "FULL ALERT" in a post on X. Pilots "detouring to 'fist city'" is not, he wrote, an ordinary experience, according to NBC News.