Flydubai Co-Pilot Arrested in Saudi Arabia After Stabbing Captain
The Omani co-pilot who stabbed Indian Captain Smit Machchhar aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073 has been arrested in Saudi Arabia, as Israeli officials confirm the mid-air attack was an attempted jihadist suicide crash.
The co-pilot who attacked the aircraft commander aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073 has been formally arrested and remains in the custody of Saudi security services in Tabuk, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Wednesday. The announcement follows the safe emergency landing of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 at Tabuk Regional Airport, where local counter-terrorism and intelligence agencies took immediate custody of the suspect. Official identification details released by intelligence sources confirm that the attacker is an Omani national serving as the flight’s first officer, while the injured aircraft commander is Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian national and seasoned commercial aviator. Captain Machchhar, who joined Flydubai as a Direct Entry Captain in 2022 after more than a decade with Indian carrier SpiceJet, boasts over 9,750 flight hours—including more than 6,400 hours as Pilot in Command on Boeing 737 platforms. Machchhar sustained multiple stab wounds during the assault but fought back from the commander's seat to resist the attacker's inputs before being assisted by passengers. The political and security classification of the incident in Jerusalem has hardened definitively into an act of ideological terrorism. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stated that the operational motive was an attempted jihadist terror attack specifically designed to crash the airliner with all 174 passengers and crew aboard, including 27 children. According to preliminary intelligence briefings, the Omani co-pilot drew a concealed folding knife and attacked Captain Machchhar inside the flight deck, intending to disable him and push the flight controls forward into an unrecoverable vertical dive over northwestern Saudi Arabia. The catastrophic scenario was averted when several Israeli travelers—hearing shouts and spotting blood inside the forward galley—breached the flight deck threshold to confront the assailant. The passengers physically tackled and subdued the co-pilot, pinning him outside the cockpit. Control of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 was then transferred to off-duty airline pilots who were traveling aboard as passengers. The relief flight crew stabilized the aircraft from its steep descent, broadcast emergency signals, and coordinated the emergency diversion into Tabuk Airport. The episode triggered acute military alarms across regional borders before the situation was brought under control. During the cockpit struggle, the aircraft shed more than 14,000 feet in under a minute, transmitting general emergency code 7700 followed by hijacking transponder squawk 7500. The 7500 code prompted the Israeli Air Force to scramble fighter interceptors toward southern flight corridors, while Netanyahu and Katz convened high-level emergency consultations with the heads of the Shin Bet, Mossad, and the Israel Defense Forces before the airliner turned toward Tabuk. Saudi state security investigators are interrogating the detained Omani co-pilot, examining his travel logs, digital footprint, communications, and potential affiliations with transnational extremist networks or hostile regional intelligence elements. Concurrently, medical teams in Tabuk continue to treat Captain Machchhar for bladed-weapon trauma. Flydubai has dispatched a replacement aircraft to Saudi Arabia to repatriate the passengers to Tel Aviv, while Israeli transport and security regulators conduct an urgent review of crew screening protocols on all international carriers servicing Ben Gurion Airport.