Netanyahu calls stabbed Indian pilot a hero; Flydubai halts Israel flights

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the captain of a Flydubai jet as “a true hero” for saving the 174 people on board after he was stabbed by his co-pilot in what Israeli officials said was an attempt to bring down the plane.

Netanyahu’s comments on Wednesday came as Israel’s government said it would check the identities of all pilots flying into the country. Flydubai suspended flights to and from Israel as it investigates the episode on Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu said the captain, Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, “fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker”.

Despite being seriously wounded, he said Captain Machchhar prevented “a catastrophic mid-air disaster”.

“He is a true hero,” Netanyahu wrote on X.

The Boeing 737 Max 8 made an emergency landing in Tabuk, in northwestern Saudi Arabia, following the incident. According to flight-tracking service Flightradar24, the plane dropped from 33,000 feet (about 10,000 metres) to 17,000ft (about 5,200 metres) in about a minute.

Netanyahu said in a video that most of the passengers were Israeli and that the co-pilot had “apparently intended to bring the aircraft down as it approached Israel”. The co-pilot remains unidentified. The Israeli prime minister said Saudi authorities arrested the co-pilot after the landing and interrogated him.

A motive for the incident has not been established.

Israel to vet pilots

Flydubai, owned by the United Arab Emirates government, described the incident as an “altercation in the cockpit” and said that on-duty crew members had “diverted and landed the aircraft safely”. The airline said it was suspending flights to and from Israel while an investigation continued.

The UAE’s aviation regulator, the GCAA, said the flight “experienced a security incident that was brought under control”.

Doron Spielman, a spokesman for Netanyahu, said Israel would now vet the identities of all pilots flying into the country.

“Every pilot that is going to be flying into Israel, we are going to know the pilots’ identities, know who they are, and do some type of security check,” he told the Reuters news agency.

United States President Donald Trump said he spoke to Netanyahu about the incident and was informed that an Israeli plumber intervened to stop the plane from crashing.

“It seems as though the co-pilot was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack-job, and he stabbed the pilot,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. The pilot “was able to fall back and get the door open and scream”.

“An Israeli plumber saw what was happening,” the US president said. “The plane was going sharply down at an unbelievable angle, so sharp that the rudder ripped off the back of the plane… He ripped this guy out of the seat, threw him back. The crowd got him. The passengers got him, grabbed him. And having never flown aboard a plane, he took the stick, lifted it up and levelled out the plane before it crashed.”

A rescue flight operated by Flydubai flew all passengers from Tabuk to their final destination, Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, at 15:34 GMT.

‘We’re going to die’

Passengers described the episode as a miracle and recounted a frantic struggle to prevent a catastrophe.

Yaniv Hayun, who had entered the cockpit, said he had grabbed the controls and pulled them back, as he had seen done on television, until members of the crew took over.

Netanyahu’s office released a video of the prime minister embracing Hayun at Ben Gurion airport. Hayun was still wearing the bloodstained shirt he had on during the flight.

Asaf Rajuan, who helped restrain the attacker, spoke with blood still on his forehead.

“This is something you do without thinking, just running to save your daughter’s life, your family’s life,” he said.

Another passenger, Almog Italie, said the plane dropped “very, very sharply”, stabilised, then fell several more times.

Naama Bershadski said she closed her eyes and prayed, thinking, “We’re going to die.”

India’s Embassy in Riyadh said Captain Machchhar, “the brave Indian pilot of Flydubai”, has been “admitted in a hospital in Tabuk city in northwest Saudi Arabia” and is “receiving necessary medical attention”.

The embassy said it was awaiting a full update on the pilot’s health, but that “he is reported to be in stable condition”.