FlyDubai flight to Israel lands after copilot stabs Indian captain

The motive of an Omani copilot who stabbed his captain on a FlyDubai flight to Israel remained unclear on Thursday, as investigators across the region worked to find out what led to the mid-air attack. The aircraft, carrying 174 people from the United Arab Emirates to Tel Aviv, made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, after a steep plunge that passengers and officials said nearly ended in disaster.

Israeli passengers on board said the injured Indian captain managed to open the cockpit door and let them in, after which they overpowered the copilot and helped stabilise the aircraft. One of them, Asaf Rajuan, said in a statement shared by Israel’s presidency, “We felt helpless, suspended in midair, and I didn’t know who to turn to. But it was all instinct to survive.”

A regional official briefed on the investigation said the suspect, an Omani citizen, was under arrest and that Saudi authorities were working with countries including Israel to determine a motive. The official said the UAE, the United States and Oman were also involved. “All possible scenarios, from terrorism to mental disorders, are being looked into. Nothing is ruled out for now,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

Another regional official said Israeli intelligence and security officials were investigating the copilot in Saudi Arabia. Netanyahu said he had spoken with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who agreed that Israel would join the interrogation of the suspect. The UAE government said its investigation team had begun work into the motive and “whether it was linked to any terrorist purpose”, adding that UAE law applies to crimes committed on board. Video filmed inside the plane by Shota Musayev, a dentist who treated the captain, showed the copilot on his knees with his hands tied behind his back. His name has not been released.

Captain Smit Machchhar was in stable condition, the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia said overnight. The condition of the copilot was not clear. Asked if there was any sign of Iranian involvement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News, “it’s too early to say.” He also told CNN that Israel had received no specific warning. US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he and Netanyahu had discussed the incident “at length” by phone and that it seemed the copilot “was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack job.”

Israel’s foreign ministry said those on board were from Israel, India and the UAE, while the US State Department said four passengers were American citizens. FlyDubai said its flights to and from Israel would be suspended. Netanyahu had in recent days warned of heightened security threats, with Israel a week away from the anniversary of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war in Gaza.

Flight data from Flightradar24 showed that about two and a half hours after leaving Dubai, the Boeing 737 Max 8 dropped from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet in about a minute before circling erratically near the Jordanian border and landing in Tabuk about an hour later. Philip Kean, head of the New Zealand flight school where the Indian captain trained, called it “miraculous in the way that the aeroplane was never, ever kind of designed for that sort of dive and survive that, the aeroplane actually didn’t break up completely.” Trump also praised Boeing, saying it had produced a plane “that was able to withstand G Forces and Strain far beyond what it was designed.”

During the search for a place to land, a person who heard the flight’s communication with air traffic control said the plane was turned away by Saudi Arabia and Jordan before it eventually landed in Tabuk, while passengers screamed in the background. The pilot’s voice was trembling as he called “mayday” and said a hijacking was taking place. Authorities across the region are now investigating the attack, while accounts from passengers and officials have underlined how close the flight came to a catastrophe.

With PTI Inputs