A co-pilot on a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv attacked the captain with a crash axe and tried to take control of the aircraft in what the United Arab Emirates has called a "terrorist attack", investigators say. The captain, Indian national Smit Machchhar, managed to open the locked cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to rush in and subdue the attacker. Flight FZ1073, carrying about 174 passengers and six crew, had plunged more than 16,000 feet in roughly 30 seconds on Wednesday before it was levelled out. A reserve flydubai pilot travelling as a passenger then landed it at Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

Several media outlets have named the co-pilot as Hamam al-Hammami, an Omani national, though authorities in the UAE have not officially confirmed his identity. He is in UAE custody, and no formal charges have been announced. The Wall Street Journal reported that Oman had barred him from flying over concerns about his radical views. Israeli and US media, citing officials, say the early assessment is that he acted alone, though the investigation is continuing and Israel says it knows of no link to any group or government.

In a call released by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, Machchhar recounted how the co-pilot asked to pray in the cockpit. Minutes later, he said, he felt heavy blows to the back of his head. With his vision blurred, he said he reached for the inside twist handle and opened the door despite the co-pilot's attempts to close it. "I knew I couldn't let the passengers die," he said. Netanyahu called him a hero, and Dubai's Crown Prince, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, praised his courage during a hospital visit.

Attention has since turned to how the co-pilot was cleared to fly the route. Australian counterterrorism officials are examining his links to the country, where he studied between about 2015 and 2017 and where his student visa was cancelled in 2019 for non-enrolment, not on character grounds. The Financial Times reported he visited extremist websites there, and The Telegraph reported offensive social media posts from his time at a British university. Neither report has been independently verified by all outlets.

Regional officials told the AP that the UAE shared passenger and crew lists, including nationalities, with Israel beforehand, and Israel raised no concerns. Oman has no diplomatic relations with Israel, and Netanyahu has said agreements exist to keep pilots from such countries off Israel-bound flights. Netanyahu has ordered a review of foreign civil aviation security. Transportation Minister Miri Regev says intelligence agencies are responsible for flight security, while the Shin Bet says vetting falls to her ministry. A 2024 state comptroller report found no clear division of responsibility.

With an election set for October 27, opposition figures including Yair Lapid, Yair Golan and Gadi Eisenkot have criticised the government, and Lapid called the review a "sham investigation". Aviation security expert Philip Baum noted that cross-border background checks face significant limits, a reminder that the case may expose gaps in how countries share information about pilots.