Attacker’s motive unknown after FlyDubai flight to Israel escapes disaster

Israeli passengers who had been aboard are welcomed at the arrivals gate at Ben Gurion International Airport Israel (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP)

The identity and motive of the Omani copilot who stabbed his captain on a flight to Israel, causing the plane to plummet dangerously and forcing it to land in Saudi Arabia, remained unknown on Thursday as investigators tried to learn more.

Israeli passengers on the FlyDubai flight carrying 174 people from the United Arab Emirates to the Israeli city of Tel Aviv have described how the bloodied Indian captain managed to open the cockpit door to let them in before they grappled with the copilot and stabilised a descent so sharp that the plane’s rudder was torn away.

One of the passengers, Asaf Rajuan, said in a new statement published by Israel’s presidency: “We felt helpless, suspended in midair, and I didn’t know who to turn to. But it was all instinct to survive.”

Saudi and UAE authorities have said little publicly beyond confirming that investigations were under way.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the copilot was arrested.

Captain Smit Machchhar, widely praised as another hero of the flight, was reportedly in a stable condition, the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia said overnight.

The condition of the arrested copilot was not clear.

In a CNN interview on Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu said the attacker was an Omani national and was being interrogated in Saudi Arabia.

US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he and Mr Netanyahu discussed the incident “at length” by phone and that it seemed as though the copilot “was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack job”.

Mr Netanyahu said he spoke to the UAE’s president, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who agreed that Israel would join the interrogation of the suspect.

Israel’s foreign ministry said the people on board were from Israel, India and the UAE. The US State Department said four passengers had American citizenship.

FlyDubai has said its flights to and from Israel would be suspended while an investigation takes place.

Mr Netanyahu had warned in recent days of unspecified, heightened security threats. The country is a week away from the anniversary of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which has triggered the war in Gaza.

In the chaos that unfolded about two and a half hours after leaving Dubai, the flight descended from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet in about a minute.

It made an erratic circle close to the Jordanian border and landed in the Saudi city of Tabuk about an hour later, according to Flightradar24, which identified the aircraft as a Boeing 737 Max 8.

A person who heard the flight’s communications with air traffic control described the plane being turned away by Saudi Arabia and Jordan before eventually landing in Tabuk, while passengers screamed in the background.

The pilot’s voice was trembling as he called “mayday” and said a hijacking was taking place.

The air control operators gave no reason for the refusals.