Suicidal-MartyrTerrorist Aboard FlyDubai Flight FZ1073

"There was blood all over the cockpit and very, very sharp fighting moves."

"I screamed, 'He's stabbing the pilot, he's stabbing the pilot, come  help'!"

"People looked at me and didn't understand." 

Tali Manes Flydubai passenger

 

"I was fighting for my life. I had suffered so many injuries that I had collapsed."

"At that time, I could feel that the aircraft was going down. I knew this was the last push, that the door was right there."

"Smit just do it. The door is right there. I was being hit even then, but I just opened the door and everyone came in."

Flydubai Flight FZ1073 Captain Smit Machchhar 

Flydubai pilot tells Indian prime minister Modi that he couldn’t ‘let anyone die’ – video

 

"There were no pilots on the chairs. One was down on the floor and one on the instruments."

"I caught the attacker. I put him in a chokehold and pulled him out first."

"I jumped back into the cockpit and pulled the yokes back."

Yaniv Hayoun, Plumber, Flight passenger 

 

"We're here during a hijacking of the plane."

"We control the terrorist. All the passenger are OK, but not the pilot.

"Whoever's hearing me, we need help."

Asaf Rejwan, Flight passenger

The United Arab Emirates prosecutor general has ordered an investigation into the ‌stabbing aboard FlyDubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, which was diverted and landed in Saudi Arabia after a struggle in the cockpit. Still from video, CBC

 

That cry for help relayed over the airwaves immediately jolted action, with the Israeli military scrambling fighter jets, a 9/11 scenario unfolding uppermost in mind. Nina Manes, six years of age, asked to go to the bathroom and her mother Tali accompanied her to the bathroom at the front of the Flydubai plane on a routine trip from Dubai to Israel last week. The plane was several hours into its flight, over the Jordan desert at that point. That little trip to the bathroom coincided with the co-pilot of the plane attacking the pilot with an onboard-cockpit ax, a standard piece of equipment on all flights. 

 

Mother Tali, aware of strangely explosive sounds, looked through the window of the cockpit door and became witness to a startling attack just as the co-pilot lunged for the attack and his first strike at the unaware pilot. Her alarmed shouts roused the passengers, some of whom ran directly to the cockpit to swiftly assess the situation and to act by thwarting the co-pilot's intention to destroy all 182 lives aboard the passenger jet in a terror-suicide plot. The non-stop trip of 2,130 kilometres took on an air of panic and fear.  

 

The badly injured captain, his skull split, his right arm almost split in two, fought desperately against his assailant. The Indian captain had been informed by his co-pilot, an Omani national, that it was his intention to pray briefly, and as the captain looked away to give his companion some privacy, the axe was raised over his head, and came down to split his skull. Dreadfully injured, his attacker still slashing at him, Captain Machchhar managed to unlock the cockpit door. And when he did several passengers ready for action, swept into the cockpit.

 

Flydubai passengers react after realising there is commotion in the cockpit, September 30, 2026 in this screengrab taken from a handout video. Handout via REUTERS

 

An off-duty pilot who was onboard, immediately took the controls to stabilize the plane which had gone into a steep nosedive. It felt, said Almog Italie, another passenger, as though "we were having very big turbulence. And the crew member, along with the passengers gained control, took over". Flight tracking website Flightreadat24 tracked the Boeing 737 Max as it plummeted from about 34,000 feet to an altitude of 17,000 feet in fewer than two minutes. 

 

Video from within the plane showed the plane shaking while plunging, passengers screaming in fear and crying, children being shielded, other passengers crouched in prayer in the aisle. The plane was "pretty much out of control. It was really on the way to crashing, and it was simply the resourcefulness of many people who took control of the co-pilot and neutralized him", remarked passenger Miryan Shira Ohayon. 

 

The erratic flight that lasted an agonizing ten minutes was soon brought under control, the flight stabilized. 7700 and 7500 emergency distress codes were activated. Passengers sent out their own status reports along with pleas for outside help. An hour later, the plane made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. A third Flydubai pilot in the cabin landed the plane, its tail damaged, according to Flydubai. "There were stabbings and a lot of blood. We're very emotional and under  terrible stress. It's very difficult for me to talk", one passenger said, on landing back in Tel Aviv when a replacement plane returned them to Israel.

 

A plane, carrying passengers who were on the FlyDubai aircraft bound for Israel from the UAE, which was diverted to Saudi Arabia following an emergency signal, arrives at Ben Gurion Airport, in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel, September 30, 2026.    Ammar Awad/Reuters