FlyDubai Flight 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv diverts to Saudi airport after, apparently, one pilot stabbed the other (30/09/2026)

ainsworth74 · 30 Sep 2026

A somewhat incredible story coming out of the Saudi Arabia and Israel this morning. Initially reported as a hijacking but now it sounds like one pilot of a flydubai flight stabbed their colleague in the middle of the flight and had to be hauled out of the cockpit by passengers after a request for help by the crew and a pair of other pilots who were passengers had to take over and land the flight in Saudi Arabia. ~~Apparently the pilots were a Russian and a Ukrainian~~ and there is speculation that this might have been another attempted pilot suicide (both those are not being report by the BBC so treat with caution!) but I think it's safe to say that it's far to early to know for certain other than something absolutely wild happened this morning. Some extracts from the BBC Live reporting page:

A flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv was diverted to Saudi Arabia after a "fight" between the pilots, Israeli officials have told local media.

The Flydubai plane - which took off from Dubai International Airport early on Wednesday - signalled an emergency code two hours into the journey, flight tracking website Flightradar24 says.

Minutes later it switched to a code used to report a hijacking, but was later turned back to the general emergency signal.

The emergency signal is thought to have been issued following an "altercation" between the pilot and co-pilot, local media reports, citing Israeli defence officials.

Flight FZ1073 - carrying around 150 people, most of whom are Israeli - was due to land at Ben-Gurion Airport but instead landed at Tabuk Airport in northeastern Saudi Arabia.

It’s reported the alarm was caused after a 'fight' between the pilot and the co-pilot.

An Israeli passenger on board has told journalists the crew asked for help and that passengers then helped tackle one of the pilots and tie him down.

In a statement, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the situation was under control and that efforts were underway to return the Israeli passengers home from Saudi Arabia.

Flydubai confirms its flight "experienced an incident" but says "all passengers are safe and accounted for".

"Flydubai can confirm that flight FZ 1073 operating from Dubai International (DXB) to Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV) on 30 September experienced an incident while en route," a statement says.

"The aircraft has landed safely in Tabuk Airport (TUU) and all passengers are safe and accounted for. The safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew remain our highest priority.

"Our teams are working closely with the relevant authorities. Further updates will be issued as additional confirmed details become available."

Flight FZ103 from Dubai to Tel Aviv issued an emergency signal for around seven minutes, shortly after an abrupt change of direction and descent over Saudi Arabia, according to data from Flightradar24.

The flight took off at 03:05 UTC (04:05 BST), after a 20-minute delay.

The emergency "squawk" code 7700, declaring a "general emergency" was issued at around 05:31 UTC.

Flightradar24 have since said on X that another emergency signal - 7500, declaring "unlawful interference" - was issued at 05:38, although this is not visible on their website.

The flight briefly entered Jordanian airspace at 05:40 before looping back into Saudi airspace six minutes later.

It began descending again at 06:11 on an apparent course towards Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Location data became temporarily unavailable shortly thereafter, until 06:58, when it re-emerged at Tabuk airport.

More reports are emerging in Israeli media about what unfolded on the Dubai to Tel Aviv flight.

An unnamed passenger tells the Jerusalem Post , externalthat one pilot was stabbed by another, but passengers near the front of the plane helped force the attacker from the cockpit.

The witness says two other pilots were on board, at the back of the plane.

"I shouted at them to run and take control of the plane," the passenger tells the Jerusalem Post.

The passenger also say the injured pilot was given life-saving care by a dentist on the flight.

BBC News can not verify this account - this is a developing story, and we will have more details soon

Israel Dubai flight: Passengers tell Israeli media pilot was stabbed on diverted plane

An Israeli passenger on board says the crew asked for help, and that passengers helped tackle one of the pilots and tie him down.

www.bbc.co.uk

RailUK Forums

speedy1 · 30 Sep 2026

What a wild incident. Lots of gossip for low-rent media and social-media – BBC included – that's for sure.

ainsworth74 said:
Apparently the pilots were a Russian and a Ukrainian

That is such an obvious thing to avoid I'd wait some official confirmation.

brad465 · 30 Sep 2026

If the speculated pilot nationalities are true, you'd think airlines would be barred from assigning pilots of countries at war.

westcoaster · 30 Sep 2026

Some pictures of the plane now being shown, it has lost most of the rudder. This could be due to excessive movement or over speed during the excessive decent.

YorkshireBear · 30 Sep 2026

brad465 said:
If the speculated pilot nationalities are true, you'd think airlines would be barred from assigning pilots of countries at war.

Israeli media now reporting an Omani and Emirati pilots, trying to a find a reasonable source, but it feels more plausible than Russian and a Ukrainian!

Sorcerer · 30 Sep 2026

brad465 said:
If the speculated pilot nationalities are true, you'd think airlines would be barred from assigning pilots of countries at war.

That seems like something which would be quite hard to enforce, and given FlyDubai is based in a country that hasn't sanctioned Russia I doubt they'd stop using pilots from there anyway. Thankfully it seems like the whole Russian and Ukrainian pilot thing is just a bit of tabloid gossip, but even before it's one of those things that just seems a bit "too believable" to be true if you get me.

edwin_m · 30 Sep 2026

YorkshireBear said:
Israeli media now reporting an Omani and Emirati pilots, trying to a find a reasonable source, but it feels more plausible than Russian and a Ukrainian!

Which may explain the utterings of Netanyahu and others about terrorism.

There must also be some concern about security at Dubai if someone managed to get a knife on board. I flew from there to Tabuk with FlyDubai in 2022 but it went from Terminal 2 which is totally separate from (and much less impressive than) the terminals Emirates use, with its own security.

westcoaster said:
Some pictures of the plane now being shown, it has lost most of the rudder. This could be due to excessive movement or over speed during the excessive decent.

Pedal being pushed fully down during a struggle?

nlogax · 30 Sep 2026

No surprise seeing photos of airframe damage when you understand just how rapid parts of the descent were.

As seen on FR24 via Reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/
r/aviation
Rich_Gas7886

14000 ft altitude loss in 30 seconds

D1511 · 30 Sep 2026

Extremely fortunate that there were those two relief pilots on board.......and even then, it wouldn't have been easy pulling out of that descent. Some heroic work there......

GRALISTAIR · 30 Sep 2026

nlogax said:
No surprise seeing photos of airframe damage when you understand just how rapid parts of the descent were.

As seen on FR24 via Reddit

That is for sure very scary and no surprise there is some damage.

birchesgreen · 30 Sep 2026

One of the passengers who stormed the cockpit and stopped the pilot said that he pulled the plane out of it's dive by doing what he saw pilots do in air disaster documentaries. :lol:

ainsworth74 · 30 Sep 2026

birchesgreen said:
One of the passengers who stormed the cockpit and stopped the pilot said that he pulled the plane out of it's dive by doing what he saw pilots do in air disaster documentaries.

That one I'm not entirely sure I buy. That descent was so severe and the speed so significant I reckon any one but a skilled pilot was at high risk of ripping the wings off the aircraft. But yes certainly if true it at least means that I'm ready to step in if needed thanks to all the air disaster videos I've watched :lol:

edwin_m · 1 Oct 2026

This YouTube has an interview with a passenger which appears to present a pretty comprehensive account of what happened:

In this episode, Captain Steeeve breaks down what happened aboard FZ1073 from a pilot’s perspective — but this time, we also hear directly from a passenger who was on the airplane and helped during the emergency inside the cockpit. He tells us what he saw, how passengers responded, and what was happening as they fought to regain control of the situation.

Tetchytyke · 1 Oct 2026

Absolutely nothing about this story stacks up. How did they manage to storm a reinforced cockpit? How did a civilian manage to get behind the controls and level the plane off? How convenient, too, that there were two extra pilots on board, ready to swoop into action. Not to mention the alleged nationality of the pilot: Omanis apparently can’t pilot to Israel because Oman doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Israel.

Also incredibly lucky that everyone was filming on their phones as the plane was supposedly dropping 15,000 feet in a few seconds. I’d have been too busy pooing myself whilst simultaneously passing out from the G-forces but thankfully they all had the presence of mind to get their iPhones out. Must be made of tough stuff. Nobody filmed the storming of the cockpit though.

Amazing, too, that Bibi was there immediately to know it must have been ~~Hamas~~ Iran and he was there to have a photo shoot with the civilian hero, who was still wearing a bloodstained shirt several hours after the incident.

What with the ~~diesel thieving~~ evil terrorist plot at RAF Fairford too, it’s been a very unlucky week for Israel. And there’s a general election there in a few weeks, one which Bibi was looking like losing.

Maybe it’ll make more sense when all the facts are known. But right now it doesn’t make much sense. Not least breaking into the cockpit, we saw with the Eurowings crash that you simply can’t break into cockpits.

birchesgreen · 2 Oct 2026

Yes it is a bit odd, the pilot unlocked the cockpit door but it does seem a bit Fauda Season 6.

I guess FlyDubai will have to file for bankruptcy when the plumber sends in his invoice.

edwin_m · 2 Oct 2026

Tetchytyke said:
Not least breaking into the cockpit, we saw with the Eurowings crash that you simply can’t break into cockpits.

Flight attendants can initiate opening the cockpit door by entering a code on a keypad. It will unlock after a timeout unless the pilot operates a switch to deny it. Thus access is possible if everyone on the flight deck is incapacitated.

Either this is what happened, and the pilot trying to take control was too distracted by attacking the other one to deny the request, or (as seems to be reported) the pilot being attacked managed to open the door himself.

speedy1 · 2 Oct 2026

Tetchytyke said:
Absolutely nothing about this story stacks up

Right! Like quite a few things in 2026.

It's almost a perfectly written movie...

Robin Edwards · 2 Oct 2026

speedy1 said:
Right! Like quite a few things in 2026.

It's almost a perfectly written movie...

I try hard to stay away from speculation and conspiracy theories but I'm finding that news stories are now more often, leaning towards the incredulous and I'm not wanting to fully believe anything from any sources! I'm as likely to want to disbelieve US/Israel as I am Russia and therefore our own media who don't want to upset the wrong set of bad-guys.

Tetchytyke · 2 Oct 2026

Robin Edwards said:
I try hard to stay away from speculation and conspiracy theories but I'm finding that news stories are now more often, leaning towards the incredulous and I'm not wanting to fully believe anything from any sources!

Likewise. How much of it is the reporting being sensationalist and/or uninformed I don’t know, but very little that’s been reported so far makes any sense.

edwin_m said:
Flight attendants can initiate opening the cockpit door by entering a code on a keypad. It will unlock after a timeout unless the pilot operates a switch to deny it. Thus access is possible if everyone on the flight deck is incapacitated.

That makes more sense, but the reporting was about how they broke down the door, not that they opened it and walked in.

I’m still not buying the story that a plumber levelled the plane off due to what he’d learned watching Air Crash Investigators. Now if he was special forces- and we know Israeli special forces routinely fly undercover on flights to and from Israel- it would be different.

GRALISTAIR · 2 Oct 2026

ainsworth74 said:
--- That descent was so severe and the speed so significant I reckon any one but a skilled pilot was at high risk of ripping the wings off the aircraft.

I had not thought about that - but yes, you are correct.

edwin_m · 2 Oct 2026

Tetchytyke said:
That makes more sense, but the reporting was about how they broke down the door, not that they opened it and walked in.

I’m still not buying the story that a plumber levelled the plane off due to what he’d learned watching Air Crash Investigators. Now if he was special forces- and we know Israeli special forces routinely fly undercover on flights to and from Israel- it would be different.

A lot of the reporting is confusing but the injured captain himself is quoted as saying he opened the door: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c639m98gde00o

"I was lying on the floor injured but I told myself to go for one last push to open the door from inside," he said in a video call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Also I've seen on one of the aviation YouTubes (don't recall which one) a 737 captain saying the door is near enough that it can be opened without leaving the seat.

The plane itself will tend to level off if nobody touches the controls, as long as it's in trim, as the increased speed in a dive will increase the lift on the wings - though that may be more questionable at the near supersonic speed reached here where aerodynamics will be getting rather strange. But I do think it's credible that someone with a little knowledge would be able to pull back gently on the yoke and possibly reduce the power - actually getting into the seat with the aircraft in that attitude might be the bigger challenge. Admittedly this is based on a similar low level of knowledge on my part, but I think I'd know that in that situation unless overcome by panic. Most Israelis have done military service so many will have done training that might be relevant.

Here's a video with two 737 captains discussing this incident (first 15min or so):

(no obvious way of quoting this).

Cdd89 · 3 Oct 2026

Many non-US carriers dropped the "minimum two people in the flight deck" rule for lack of evidence, but this incident shows why it's clearly the right thing to do. The presence of a second person clearly prevented this incident from becoming a tragedy. It's extremely lucky this was a short flight so the co-pilot couldn't rely on the pilot going to the toilet to take advantage, like the incidents preceding this one.

One must keep the risk in perspective and this wouldn't affect my choice of airline, but given that aviation safety is about a series of tiny risk reductions learned from experiences I no longer understand the excuses.

Robin Edwards · 3 Oct 2026

Tetchytyke said:
Likewise. How much of it is the reporting being sensationalist and/or uninformed I don’t know, but very little that’s been reported so far makes any sense.

That makes more sense, but the reporting was about how they broke down the door, not that they opened it and walked in.

I’m still not buying the story that a plumber levelled the plane off due to what he’d learned watching Air Crash Investigators. Now if he was special forces- and we know Israeli special forces routinely fly undercover on flights to and from Israel- it would be different.

I've also seen what looks to be images of calm with unspilt drinks along the aisle of the plane that's just been through a sustained nose dive. Sometimes coincidence seems incredulous but the coincidence that there was a plumber available to save lives as well as pull a plane out of a nose dive does seem fantasy to me given there's political advantage ahead of elections to be played for.

A series of story lines where it feels like someone isn't reporting the full truth : Ann Widdecombe, Fairford, Israeli jet - with bad actors working from the sidelines on all of these cases, it feels to be that the news media are not knowing who to please.

edwin_m · 3 Oct 2026

Cdd89 said:
Many non-US carriers dropped the "minimum two people in the flight deck" rule for lack of evidence, but this incident shows why it's clearly the right thing to do. The presence of a second person clearly prevented this incident from becoming a tragedy. It's extremely lucky this was a short flight so the co-pilot couldn't rely on the pilot going to the toilet to take advantage, like the incidents preceding this one.

One must keep the risk in perspective and this wouldn't affect my choice of airline, but given that aviation safety is about a series of tiny risk reductions learned from experiences I no longer understand the excuses.

Does FlyDubai have this rule?

I'm surprised if most airlines haven't restored it after the GermanWings crash. As well as this sort of scenario, it addresses the risk of the remaining pilot becoming incapacitated while one of them has left the flight deck.

AlterEgo · 3 Oct 2026

The attacker had previously been stepped down from flight duties by Oman Air having displayed radical tendencies. Many questions for Flydubai to answer here. And no, it doesn't seem to be some Mossad plot.

Cdd89 · 3 Oct 2026

edwin_m said:
Does FlyDubai have this rule?

I'm surprised if most airlines haven't restored it after the GermanWings crash. As well as this sort of scenario, it addresses the risk of the remaining pilot becoming incapacitated while one of them has left the flight deck.

I don't think so, most airlines didn't bother with it after the Germanwings incident died down.

It isn't actualy relevant to incapacitation, as there's a "dead man's switch" procedure for that – it's quite interesting:

Unfortunately this system can also be used (and has been used) by a malicious pilot to ensure they remain the only person in the flight deck, so the two-cockpit-rule makes sense in my opinion.

ainsworth74 · 3 Oct 2026

edwin_m said:
Here's a video with two 747 captains discussing this incident (first 15min or so):

Point of order, Ben and Petter are 737 captains not 747 captains.

edwin_m · 3 Oct 2026

ainsworth74 said:
Point of order, Ben and Petter are 737 captains not 747 captains.

Thanks for pointing out, now edited.

cool110 · 3 Oct 2026

edwin_m said:
There must also be some concern about security at Dubai if someone managed to get a knife on board.

We know now that that didn't happen, the weapon using being the crash axe that's part of the plane's own emergency equipment.

Harpo · 4 Oct 2026

Robin Edwards said:
A series of story lines where it feels like someone isn't reporting the full truth : Ann Widdecombe, Fairford, Israeli jet - with bad actors working from the sidelines on all of these cases

We’re lost the generations who understood a need to stay silent and we are now in an instant-everything era where social media and disingenuous politicians with agendas rush in to fill the vacuum. Even Netanyahu has grabbed international ‘good news’ airtime on this one.

As for Fairford, I’d love to know more about the white van man’s 999 call as would many a comedy script writer I suspect.

FlyDubai Flight 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv diverts to Saudi airport after, apparently, one pilot stabbed the other (30/09/2026)

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