FlyDubai flight to Israel lands after copilot stabs Indian captain — SkimNews
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- FlyDubai flight carrying 174 people from the UAE to Tel Aviv dropped from 33,000 to 17,000 feet in roughly a minute after the Omani copilot stabbed the captain, according to Flightradar24 data, before circling erratically near the Jordanian border and landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
- Captain Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot, remained in stable condition per the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia; he opened the cockpit door and let Israeli passengers in to help overpower the attacker, with one passenger, Asaf Rajuan, saying the moment was driven by "instinct to survive."
- Investigators from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the US, and Oman are jointly probing whether the attack was terror-linked or driven by mental illness, with a regional official telling reporters that "all possible scenarios, from terrorism to mental disorders, are being looked into."
- Netanyahu said he spoke with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who agreed Israel would join the interrogation of the Omani suspect now in Saudi custody, while Netanyahu told Fox News it was "too early to say" if Iran was involved.
- FlyDubai suspended all flights to and from Israel after the incident; the Boeing 737 Max 8 had been turned away by Saudi Arabia and Jordan before Tabuk accepted the emergency landing, per a person who heard the plane's communications with air traffic control.
- Trump told reporters he and Netanyahu discussed the attack "at length," calling the copilot "perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack job," while Philip Kean, head of the New Zealand flight school where Machchhar trained, called the aircraft's survival "miraculous."
Why it matters: With 174 people aboard, the Boeing 737 Max 8 survived a 16,000-foot dive in about a minute that its New Zealand-based training school called beyond what the plane was designed to withstand, and FlyDubai has now suspended its entire Israel route. The cross-border interrogation cooperation between Israel, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the US — secured via a Netanyahu-Mohamed bin Zayed call — turns a cockpit attack into a test of regional security coordination one week before the October 7 anniversary.
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