Israel flight hijacking latest: Netanyahu names ‘true hero’ pilot who opened cockpit door after being stabbed

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has named the pilot who was stabbed during the attempted hijacking of the FlyDubai flight, calling him a “true hero”.

In a post on X, he wrote: “My salute to the Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his extraordinary bravery. Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster”.

Terrified passengers travelling on Flydubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Israel described bloody scenes as the plane descended approximately 13,000 feet in 30 seconds during the chaos Wednesday morning. Four US-Israeli dual citizens were reportedly among the plane’s passengers.

One passenger named Yaniv told Netanyahu that he put the alleged attempted hijacker “in a chokehold”.

He said "before he [the stabbed pilot] collapsed" he managed to open the door to the cockpit, adding: “I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold, and pulled him — first and foremost — outside."

Yaniv then said he "pulled the controls [of the plane]" to level the plane out, before the stabbed pilot took control.

The suspected hijacker has been arrested and is being interrogated by Saudi authorities.

Hila Gaier, who was on board the Flydubai flight with her daughters and partner, described the tense moments when they all bid goodbye to each other as the hijacking attempt unfolded.

She said her daughters were scared as “complete chaos” broke out during the flight and the plane plunged.

She told Israeli public broadcaster Kan 11 Radio that her daughter was about to go to the restroom when the plane hit what she thought was “insane turbulence.”

“My daughters were hugging me, and we simply said goodbye to each other,” she said.

“I told them, ‘My beloved girls, I love you.’ My partner looked at me and said, ‘I love you.’ We were simply staring death in the face.”

Overhead bins opened, the power went out, and the communications system and screens all went down, Gaier said.

“You have no idea what’s happening, and it just keeps going and going,” she said.

“It’s been a complete nightmare.”She said the plane, carrying families with children, was filled with “terrifying screams”.

A pilot on an Israel-bound flight stabbed another pilot and may have deliberately tried to crash the plane before passengers wrestled back control and the aircraft landed safely in Saudi Arabia.

Flydubai flight FZ1073 was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday when it suddenly plummeted 14,000ft in less than 30 seconds, before putting out an emergency signal and changing course over Jordan.

Israeli officials said the co-pilot of the Boeing 737 plane is believed to have stabbed the captain in a possible attempted ‘terror attack’ with around 150 Israeli passengers on board.

The incident has heightened security fears in Israel weeks before Israelis vote in the first election since the Hamas-led October 7 attack, with security a defining issue.

Donald Trump has suggested the co-pilot involved in an incident aboard a Flydubai passenger aircraft may have been a “terrorist” or was acting irrationally, as he recounted an extraordinary version of events relayed to him by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The US president told reporters on Wednesday that he had spoken to Netanyahu about the incident, which reportedly involved a confrontation between the pilots of a flight travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv.

“I think it’s an incredible story,” Trump said.

He claimed it appeared the “co-pilot was perhaps a terrorist, or perhaps a whack-job, and he stabbed the pilot”.

Trump then recounted an account he said he received from Netanyahu involving an Israeli plumber who had no experience flying an aircraft but intervened after hearing screams and realising something was wrong in the cockpit.

“Having never flown a plane, he took the stick, lifted it up, and levelled out the plane before it crashed,” Trump said.

The president acknowledged that he could not independently confirm the account.“Now this is the story that I heard. I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s the story that I got from Bibi,” he said.

Trump said Netanyahu told him the passenger knew what to do because he regularly watched the television programme Air Disasters.

“When asked why he did that, he said, ‘He watches that show Air Disasters,’” Trump said, adding that the passenger had apparently learned “sort of how to fly” from the programme.

Reports said the confrontation triggered a hijacking code before the aircraft eventually landed in Saudi Arabia.

The co-pilot of a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv is believed to have stabbed the captain in a possible attempted "terror attack" on Wednesday, forcing the plane to divert to Saudi Arabia where it landed safely, three Israeli officials said.

They said the cabin crew entered ⁠the cockpit and took control of flydubai flight FZ1073 from the United Arab Emirates to Israel, which diverted to Saudi Arabia as it flew over Jordanian airspace. One of the officials identified the attacker as an Omani national.

An Israeli official had earlier told Reuters the plane transmitted emergency signals after the pilots got into a physical altercation with each other.

Around the time the plane landed in Saudi Arabia, Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister's office, told Reuters the ⁠incident was not believed to have been a hijacking, describing it as a "different incident".

The Israeli officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to brief reporters, said Israel's current assessment is that the incident was an attempted "terror attack" and not related to any kind of mental health issue with either of the pilots.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has become the latest to praise the flight captain Smit Machchhar for his bravery during the FlyDubai flight.

“Captain Smit Machchhar is a HERO. In the face of the gravest danger and despite being seriously injured, he showed immense courage and an unwavering resolve to protect the lives of others,” Modi said.

“His valour helped save hundreds of lives and avert a great tragedy. India is proud of Captain Machchhar. Praying for his speedy recovery, renewed strength and good health.”

Machchhar is believed to have been seriously injured after he was attacked by the other pilot, but the captain succeeded in opening the cockpit door so that passengers could get inside and prevent a disaster.

The plane eventually made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, has celebrated the Indian pilot who fought off an attempted hijacker on a FlyDuabi flight Wednesday as a “hero”.

Captain Smit Machchhar “is a hero & being celebrated all over Israel tonight,” Huckabee wrote on X.

Four Americans were aboard the Israel-bound plane that a pilot allegedly attempted to hijack Wednesday, according to reports.

The four passengers on the Flydubai flight were US-Israeli dual citizens, US officials told CNN and NewsNation.

FlyDubai Airlines has suspended all its flights to and from Israel after a pilot allegedly attempted to hijack one of its planes Wednesday.

One pilot stabs another as he attempts to take control of a flight from the United Arab Emirates to Israel with the aim of crashing it, according to Israel's prime minister.

Passengers, many of whom are Israelis, fear for their lives as the FlyDubai aircraft loses half its altitude in about a minute.

As Israel scrambles fighter jets out of concern for a possible hijacking, a passenger and crew member break into the cockpit to subdue the attacker and other crew members gain control of the aircraft, which lands safely in Saudi Arabia.