A pilot stabs the other pilot and tries to crash their flight to Tel Aviv, Israel says

NPR | By Kat Lonsdorf,

Aya Batrawy

Published September 30, 2026 at 9:35 AM AST

Media representatives gather along with passengers at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on Wednesday after a flydubai plane bound for Tel Aviv was forced to land in Saudi Arabia following an "incident," the airline said.

Updated September 30, 2026 at 12:39 PM AST

TEL AVIV, Israel, and RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — One pilot stabbed another pilot on a flydubai flight headed to Tel Aviv, attempting to crash the plane of mostly Israeli passengers, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

He said a passenger told him the plane "went into a spin and began to plunge," when that passenger and a crew member somehow broke into the cockpit and subdued the pilot who carried out the stabbing.

Flydubai said in a statement that an "altercation occurred in the flight deck" of flight FZ 1073, traveling from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Tel Aviv. It said the flight crew secured the aircraft and diverted the plane to make an emergency landing at an airport in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. There were no reports of injuries to passengers.

Netanyahu said the Saudi authorities arrested the suspected attacker and are questioning him. Saudi Arabia did not comment.

A statement from Cluster2, the Saudi company that manages the country's airports, said the flight's captain and first officer, the co-pilot, were being treated for injuries in a hospital. "The relevant authorities are conducting the necessary investigations into the incident," the airport said.

Flydubai airline said the motives behind the incident were unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called it "an attempted jihadist terrorist attack."

The passengers have since been flown from Saudi Arabia to Israel.

Itay Stern contributed reporting from Tel Aviv.