What is known about the Flydubai cockpit stabbing - critical summary review

A commercial flight has two pilots sitting side by side behind a reinforced door. That door exists to keep everyone else out: after the September 11 attacks, cockpits were hardened so that nobody in the cabin could force their way in. The design assumes the threat comes from outside the flight deck.

On September 30, on a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, the threat was inside. According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the co-pilot stabbed the captain and apparently tried to crash the plane. What followed is the reason 174 passengers and eight crew members are alive, and it was not a system working as designed. It was a sequence of coincidences.

What happened aboard flight FZ1073

Flydubai flight FZ1073 left Dubai International Airport at 03:05 GMT (07:05 local time) bound for Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. The aircraft was a Boeing 737 MAX 8. Of the 174 passengers, 166 were Israeli, according to the airline.

About two and a half hours after takeoff, flight-tracking site Flightradar24 recorded a violent descent: the plane dropped from roughly 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet in about a minute. Minutes later someone in the cockpit transmitted squawk code 7700, the universal signal for a general emergency, then switched to 7500, which reports unlawful interference, including hijacking. Those codes are entered by hand from the flight deck, and pilots use them when radio contact is not possible or not advisable.

The aircraft briefly entered Jordanian airspace, looped back into Saudi Arabia and landed at Tabuk airport, in the northwest of the kingdom, at 9:45 a.m. local time. Both pilots were injured and taken to hospital. No passengers were hurt. Saudi Arabia turned down an Israeli request to send military aircraft to collect the passengers, according to two security sources cited by Reuters. They flew on to Tel Aviv that evening aboard a replacement Flydubai jet.

The captain was identified as Smit Machchhar, an Indian national from Mumbai who joined Flydubai in 2022 after eleven years at the Indian carrier SpiceJet, with close to 9,750 logged flight hours. He underwent surgery in Tabuk and was later transferred to Abu Dhabi.

The chain of coincidences that held

Netanyahu's spokesperson told Reuters that Machchhar, covered in blood and lying on the floor, managed to click the release that unlocks the cockpit door. That single action is what turned a sealed compartment into an accessible one.

Passengers went in. Yaniv Hayun, described by Netanyahu as a plumber, said in a video released by the prime minister's office that the door was hard to open because the wounded pilot was lying right behind it. Inside, he said, the attacker was "trying to destroy the instruments in order to disable the plane". Hayun said he put the man in a chokehold and dragged him out, while others pinned him down. Zvika Manes told Israeli public broadcaster Kan that they tied the attacker using his own zip ties and the headphone cords from the in-flight entertainment. Shota Musayev, a dentist and the only doctor on board, told CNN the captain's head and hands were "practically sliced open" and that a few more minutes would have cost him his life.

Then came the third coincidence. A second set of Flydubai pilots was travelling on the flight, scheduled to operate a later leg. Passenger Almog Itali told the BBC that one of the relief pilots, a Briton, took the controls, pulled the aircraft up and landed it in Saudi Arabia. Flydubai confirmed that an on-duty crew travelling as passengers diverted and landed the aircraft, without naming them.

Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at London-based StrategicAero Research, told Al Jazeera that the case "was unique in that other flight crew were on hand to land the airplane", adding: "It's frightening to think of what the outcome would have been if those additional pilots were not there."

The descent was severe enough that most of the rudder was torn off the tail, according to accounts cited by Reuters. Philip Kean, who runs the New Zealand flight school where Machchhar trained, called it "miraculous" that the aircraft did not break apart.

What is still not confirmed

The motive is not established. Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said on October 1 that a preliminary investigation found "the pilot was assaulted by his co-pilot, resulting in various injuries to both". That statement did not address the allegation that he tried to crash the aircraft.

The UAE attorney general, Hamad Saif Al Shamsi, opened an investigation into whether the incident was connected to "terrorist activity or intent" and whether there was prior planning or direction. The UAE claims jurisdiction because the aircraft is registered there. Saudi Arabia's National Transport Safety Center also began work. A source close to the investigation told the Associated Press that Saudi authorities are working with the UAE, the United States, Israel and Oman, and that "all possible scenarios, from terrorism to mental disorders, are being investigated. Nothing is ruled out for now."

The co-pilot's identity has not been released. Israeli officials identified him as an Omani national. Oman, which has no diplomatic relations with Israel, has not commented. He was transferred from Saudi Arabia to the UAE accompanied by an Emirati security team.

What officials have said, and what they have not

Israeli ministers described the case in definitive terms within hours. Defence Minister Israel Katz called it an "attempted jihadist terror attack", without specifying what that was based on. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir used similar language and argued the case proved Israel should intensify its military campaigns in Iran, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said anyone who tried to bring down the plane should "pay as though they had murdered them".

Netanyahu used narrower language, calling it "an extremely severe security incident". He told Fox News the attacker "underwent Islamist radical indoctrination" and that after being subdued he shouted "Kill me, kill me", which in his reading made clear the man was suicidal. Asked who had radicalised him, Netanyahu said he did not know, and his office declined to comment on the statement. Asked about Iranian involvement, he said it was "too early to say". In an earlier CBS interview he did not rule out mental health as a factor.

US President Donald Trump said he and Netanyahu discussed the case at length and that the co-pilot was "perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack job". Asked by Fox News whether Iran's Revolutionary Guard could have been involved, Trump said: "Could have been." Pressed on whether there was a connection, he said: "I would say the answer based on what I'm hearing is yes." Israel has not said it found evidence of Iranian involvement.

Flydubai said the underlying reasons and motives remain unknown and asked all parties to refrain from premature speculation. The airline suspended flights to and from Israel while the investigation continues.

The episode landed in a charged moment: days before the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack, and weeks before Israel's general election on October 27.

The gap it exposed in pilot screening

Flydubai is certified and overseen by the UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency told Reuters that responsibility for ensuring crews are fit to fly rests with that regulator. The standard requirements are a valid professional licence, the right type rating, a current Class 1 medical certificate covering physical and mental health, English proficiency and the required flight experience.

"Pilot vetting is very thorough, from security and financial checks to mental health evaluation," Ahmad told Al Jazeera. "But those checks are a single snapshot in time and will never uncover whether a person has issues that then manifest in the workplace or flight deck."

A second gap is specific to Israel. Netanyahu told Fox News that rules bar pilots from countries without diplomatic relations with Israel from flying there, and that the co-pilot "was able to go through that. So there's a loophole there." Transport Minister Miri Regev asked the civil aviation authority to investigate whether the UAE breached that bilateral agreement. Al Jazeera said it could not verify the claim about the agreement's terms, and noted that Israel's transport security department describes its role as screening foreign flights rather than vetting individual pilots. Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the prime minister's office, said Israel would now check the identity and background of every pilot flying into the country.

What is known, and what is still unknown

Known: the captain was stabbed by his co-pilot; the aircraft lost roughly 16,000 feet in under two minutes; the wounded captain released the cockpit door; passengers restrained the attacker; an off-duty Flydubai crew landed the plane in Tabuk; everyone on board survived; four investigations are open, in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Israel and with Omani and US involvement.

Unknown: the co-pilot's name and confirmed nationality, his motive, whether anyone directed him, whether this was terrorism, mental illness or something else. Investigators themselves say nothing is ruled out. The Saudi preliminary finding describes an assault, not an attempted crash. No investigating authority has yet published a conclusion on intent.

That gap matters because the labels already applied in public came from political figures, not from the investigations, and because Trump's suggestion of Iranian involvement is not backed by any finding announced so far. The things to follow are the joint investigation's conclusions, which carry the only official answer on motive, and whether the promised changes to pilot screening become actual rules for flights to Israel or stay at the level of statements.

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