flydubai FZ1073 hijack alert: what happened, step by step

flydubai flight FZ1073 took off from Dubai for Tel Aviv at 07:05 local time on Wednesday 30 September and landed three hours and 40 minutes later at Tabuk, in north-western Saudi Arabia. On the way, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 came down from its cruising height of 34,000 ft, and its transponder showed 7700, the general emergency code, and then 7500, the code for unlawful interference. Israel scrambled fighter jets. The passengers reached Ben Gurion that afternoon on a flydubai rescue flight from Tabuk.

By the end of the day, flydubai had suspended its flights to and from Israel while the investigation continues, and Israel had suspended them at its end for six days. The UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority and Saudi Arabia's National Transport Safety Center have each opened an investigation. India's embassy in Riyadh says the captain, Smit Machchhar, is in hospital in Tabuk and stable.

Israel's account hardened through 30 September. Israeli officials first ruled out a hijacking and described a fight between the pilots. By the afternoon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was saying that "one of the pilots stabbed the other pilot, and all indications show that he tried to crash the plane along with its passengers", and Defence Minister Israel Katz called it "a jihadist terrorist attack attempt". flydubai's second statement says "an altercation occurred in the flight deck", that on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight secured the aircraft and landed it at Tabuk, and that the reasons and motives "are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation". Tabuk's airport says the captain and the co-pilot were both injured and taken to hospital.

Where reports disagree, the note on sourcing at the end says which account this piece follows and why.

What has happened since

flydubai suspended its Israel flights. In a third statement, issued late on 30 September, flydubai said that "in coordination with the relevant authorities, flydubai flights to and from Israel will be suspended while the investigation continues". It called this a temporary suspension that "will allow the relevant authorities to continue their work and establish all the facts surrounding the incident", said it would "review the suspension as more information becomes available", and apologised to passengers whose plans were affected. Its second statement, earlier the same day, had said the incident had no impact on other scheduled operations.

Israel suspended them too, for six days. Ynet and Calcalist reported that Israel suspended flydubai flights to Ben Gurion for six days, on a directive from the Prime Minister's Office, in a decision reached in coordination with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed. It followed Transportation Minister Miri Regev's call for flydubai's flights to be halted until the circumstances are clear.

Two aviation authorities are investigating. The UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), the regulator of the state where the aircraft is registered and its operator is based, said the flight experienced a security incident that was brought under control, that some crew members were injured and taken to hospital in Saudi Arabia, and that its investigation teams, working with the relevant authorities, are establishing the causes and circumstances, including the operational and security aspects, Khaleej Times and Gulf News reported. It asked the public not to circulate unofficial information or anticipate the findings. Saudi Arabia's National Transport Safety Center (NTSC), the investigator for the state where the aircraft landed, said an aviation safety investigation team had begun work to establish the circumstances and collect information and evidence, Anadolu Agency reported. Neither has said what caused the descent or what the co-pilot intended.

The captain is stable. India's embassy in Riyadh said on X that it and the consulate in Jeddah were following the health of "Mr Smit Machchhar, the brave Indian pilot of Flydubai flight that was diverted to Tabuk", who was admitted to hospital in Tabuk, and Indian media reported the mission as saying he is stable. It is the first official identification of either pilot. No official has given the co-pilot's condition or identified him.

The flight

FZ1073 was scheduled to leave Dubai International at 06:45 and reach Ben Gurion at 09:10 Israel time, according to Flightradar24. The aircraft was A6-FKF, a Boeing 737 MAX 8. It took off at 07:05 Dubai time and crossed Saudi Arabia heading north-west.

Ynet reported 174 passengers on board, 27 of them children. The Times of Israel put the number at about 180. N12 said about 100 of the passengers were Israeli, and the Jerusalem Post more than 100.

Minute by minute

All times are UTC: add three hours for Israel and four for Dubai. Heights, tracks (the direction of travel over the ground) and transponder codes come from the aircraft's own broadcasts as recorded by ADS-B Exchange, and the country under each position from OpenStreetMap.

What Tabuk Airport said

Tabuk's Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport said in a statement, reported by Asharq News, that its air traffic control centre received a distress call from FZ1073 asking to make an emergency landing at 8:44 local time (05:44 UTC), and that it declared an emergency. It said the aircraft landed safely at 9:45 (06:45 UTC), that the captain and the co-pilot were found to be injured and were taken to hospital, that the passengers were given care in the terminal, and that it was coordinating with flydubai to secure a replacement aircraft. The Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post also reported the statement; the Times of Israel attributes it to the company that operates the airport. Saudi Arabia's National Transport Safety Center has since said it is investigating (see above).

Israel's response

Israel treated the flight as a possible hijacking while it was in the air. Fighter jets were scrambled after the emergency signal, an Israeli military spokesperson told CNN. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz held an urgent security consultation, and the Israel Police Operations Division ordered a joint command centre set up with the other security agencies, Ynet reported. The IDF said its Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, held an assessment with the heads of the air force, the Operations Directorate and the Intelligence Directorate. The Jerusalem Post reported that Zamir cancelled a planned trip to the United States.

While the aircraft was still flying, an Israeli security official quoted by Ynet said there was no definitive information about a hijacking, adding: "We are unable to establish contact with the pilot, and that is concerning." The Times of Israel reported that contact was made with the aircraft not long afterwards.

After the landing, Netanyahu's office said the situation was under control and that every measure was being taken to bring the Israeli passengers home safely. In his video statement, Netanyahu said he had instructed Israel's security services to take measures to prevent similar attempts, and a spokesperson for his office later said he had ordered authorities to "ramp up" security on both Israeli and non-Israeli carriers, Reuters reported.

The official accounts

The first official accounts described a fight between the pilots. By the afternoon, Israel's prime minister and defence minister were describing an attempt to crash the aircraft.

• According to Israeli security sources cited by the Times of Israel, the emergency was apparently due to an altercation between the pilots.
• Sources told CNN of a "violent incident" between the two pilots. An Israeli official quoted by CNN said it was not a hijacking and that they understood it to be an internal personnel incident on board.
• A regional official briefed on the incident, quoted by the Associated Press, said a fight broke out in the cockpit and apparently involved pilots, and that it was not clear what caused it.
• A senior Israeli official told Channel 12 that "the most severe disaster was prevented", the Times of Israel reported, and that the co-pilot is being investigated amid growing indications that he tried to take over the plane in order to crash it. N12, Channel 12's news site, reported that the suspicion being examined is that a pilot tried to crash the aircraft and that passengers and crew intervened.
• An Israeli official told the Jerusalem Post that a "major disaster was narrowly avoided", and that additional flight crew, helped by Israelis on board, subdued the pilot. The official said it remains unclear whether he meant to take the aircraft to Israel, crash it or carry out a September 11-style attack, but that he wanted to hijack it, and that authorities were still working to establish the identity of the pilot who carried out the stabbing. The Post reported that the growing assessment among Israel's security establishment, including the IDF, the Mossad and the Shin Bet, is that the incident was intended as an act of terror.
• Channel 12 and Ynet reported, according to the Times of Israel, that there is a growing assessment in Israel that it was an attempted terror attack, though Israel cannot yet say so definitively, and that other options are being examined, including a mental health episode that was not nationalistic in nature. The Times of Israel noted that there had not yet been an official statement on the circumstances.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a video statement reported by the Times of Israel, said that "one of the pilots stabbed the other pilot, and all indications show that he tried to crash the plane along with its passengers". He said a passenger told him he broke into the cockpit with a crew member and that together they stopped the pilot "while he was attempting to damage the plane's systems", after which another crew member stabilised the aircraft. He said the Saudis are interrogating the suspect.
• Defence Minister Israel Katz called it "a jihadist terrorist attack attempt", thwarted, he said, by Israeli passengers who broke into the cockpit, overpowered the attacker and restored control of the aircraft to another flight crew on board. "According to the initial information in our possession, the terrorist had one intention: to crash the plane with all its passengers," Katz said.

flydubai's second statement says the reasons and motives are unknown and urges against premature speculation, and the UAE's GCAA has asked the public not to anticipate the findings. Neither the airline nor the Saudi or UAE authorities have addressed the Israeli accounts directly. Tabuk Airport's statement covers the landing and the injuries only.

flydubai's statements

flydubai has published three statements on its newsroom. The third, on the suspension of its Israel flights, is covered above. The first said FZ1073 "experienced an incident while en route", landed safely at Tabuk, and that "all passengers are safe and accounted for". It added: "Our teams are working closely with the relevant authorities."

The second, published later on 30 September, says "an altercation occurred in the flight deck" and that "the aircraft was successfully secured by on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight, who diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk Airport". It says all passengers and crew are safe and accounted for, that flydubai has deployed two replacement aircraft to Tabuk, and that the incident "has no impact on other scheduled operations across the flydubai network". On the cause: "At this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation." It urges "all parties to refrain from premature speculation while authorities gather the facts."

Ynet had reported earlier that flydubai confirmed the emergency signal was triggered by a fight between the pilots. The second statement confirms an altercation on the flight deck but does not say who was involved. N12 reported that flydubai's chief executive told Israeli transport officials that another aircraft would soon fly from Dubai to Saudi Arabia to carry the passengers on to Israel.

What passengers said

Passengers began describing the flight to Israeli broadcasters after the landing. One woman, in a text message to Channel 12 quoted by the Times of Israel, said that screams were heard, the cockpit was opened and there was blood, and that "someone had stabbed the pilot with a pocketknife". She said Israeli passengers helped the crew restrain an attacker. Maariv printed the same words from a passenger it named as Miriam, speaking to i24news; the Hebrew word it uses is the one for a pocketknife.

Another woman, who gave her name as Noam, told Channel 12 that passengers understood one of the pilots had been stabbed and seriously wounded, and that "they lost control of the plane. It started to dive quickly."

A passenger who spoke to N12 described the same scene, and said Israeli passengers and crew members threw themselves on the pilot and overpowered him.

An Israeli passenger told the Jerusalem Post that one pilot stabbed the other and tried to force him out of the cockpit as the aircraft began to dive, and that Israelis seated near the front fought the attacker. Two other pilots seated at the back were brought into the cockpit, the passenger said, and one of them took control. The passenger said the stabbed pilot was in critical condition and that an Israeli dentist on board treated him. Channel 12 reported that a second team of pilots in civilian clothes was on board and that they were the passengers who stopped the attempt; the Times of Israel, relaying that report, said it is not confirmed. flydubai's second statement says on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight secured the aircraft and landed it.

These are accounts from the cabin. The official quoted by the Jerusalem Post has since referred to the stabbing, Tabuk Airport says both pilots were injured, and India's embassy says the captain is stable.

The passengers' return

flydubai says it deployed two replacement aircraft to Tabuk, and Tabuk Airport said it cared for the passengers in the terminal and worked with flydubai on a replacement aircraft. At about 12:39 UTC the Times of Israel reported that a flydubai aircraft had landed at Tabuk to collect them. The rescue flight took off for Ben Gurion at about 14:40 UTC, the Israel Airports Authority said, in what the Times of Israel called a rare direct flight from Saudi Arabia to Israel. By about 15:34 UTC it had landed at Ben Gurion, according to flight-tracking data cited by the Times of Israel. Magen David Adom said its teams were on standby at the airport to treat any passengers who needed care.

Israel had asked to bring the passengers home itself. Reuters, citing two security sources, reported that Saudi Arabia turned down a request to let Israeli military planes collect them, and that the Israeli Air Force had been preparing to send Super Hercules aircraft. Saudi Arabia's government media office did not immediately respond to Reuters.

The two codes

The US Federal Aviation Administration's Aeronautical Information Manual sets out both.

7700 is for "a distress or urgency condition". A pilot who wants to alert a ground radar facility sets it and then contacts air traffic control at once. In the manual's words, "Code 7700 normally triggers an alarm or special indicator at all control positions."

7500 marks what the manual calls a special emergency: "a condition of air piracy, or other hostile act by a person(s) aboard an aircraft, which threatens the safety of the aircraft or its passengers." Its spoken equivalent means "I am being hijacked/forced to a new destination". The code "will trigger the special emergency indicator in all radar ATC facilities", and controllers confirm it by asking the pilot to verify it. A crew that is not under unlawful interference is expected to say so on the radio.

Still unknown

• Why the aircraft descended. The descent began at 05:21 with the transponder still on code 0527, before either emergency code appears in the tracking data. Israeli officials are examining whether a pilot tried to crash the aircraft, according to Channel 12, and a passenger told the Jerusalem Post that the aircraft began to dive as one pilot tried to force the other out of the cockpit. No investigating authority has said what caused the descent.
• Who the pilot is, and what he intended. Netanyahu says all indications are that he tried to crash the aircraft, and Katz calls it a jihadist terrorist attack attempt. The official quoted by Channel 12 named the co-pilot. flydubai says the reasons and motives are unknown and subject to a formal investigation, and no Saudi or UAE authority has said what he intended.
• The co-pilot's condition and identity. Tabuk Airport says both pilots were injured and taken to hospital. India's embassy says the captain is stable; no official has given the co-pilot's condition or identified him.
• How the investigations divide the work. The UAE's GCAA and Saudi Arabia's NTSC have both opened investigations, and neither has said which leads or when it will report. Kan reported, according to the Times of Israel, that the Mossad, the Shin Bet, the IDF and Israel's Transportation Ministry are involved in Israel's own investigation. Netanyahu said the Saudis are interrogating the suspect; no Saudi authority has said so.
• When flydubai flies to Israel again. Israel's suspension runs for six days; flydubai's lasts while the investigation continues, with no end date. According to Hebrew media reports relayed by the Times of Israel, Regev has also asked Israel's Civil Aviation Authority to examine whether the UAE breached its aviation agreement with Israel, and no outcome has been reported.

A note on sourcing

The heights, tracks, transponder codes and times in the table come from A6-FKF's own ADS-B broadcasts as recorded by ADS-B Exchange (Mode S code 8965D1), read on 30 September 2026. The country under each position is OpenStreetMap's. The altitude readings become erratic about 35 seconds into the descent, and the record then stops for about nine minutes, so it cannot show how far or how fast the aircraft fell, or when the 7700 code was first set, only that it was set by 05:31. CNN, the Times of Israel, N12 and an Israeli official quoted by the Jerusalem Post give different descent figures, N12 putting the rate at more than 14,000 ft a minute and the official the drop at about 4,000 metres. The record cannot settle which is right, so none is presented as fact. The record ends at 05:53, and the approach and landing come from news reports.

Some reports give different times and places. Ynet put the first code about 90 minutes into the flight and said it came as the aircraft entered Jordanian airspace. The Times of Israel's summary said the 7700 came as the aircraft made a U-turn over the Jordan-Saudi border and that the 7500 was brief. N12 placed the aircraft over Jordan at about 09:30 Israel time. In the tracking data, 7700 is showing by 05:31 UTC (08:31 in Israel), 2 hours 26 minutes after takeoff, while the aircraft is over Saudi Arabia; it enters Jordan at 05:40 and turns back there between 05:42 and 05:44; and 7500 is showing from 05:35 until the record ends at 05:53. The times and places here are the tracking data's.

flydubai's three statements are quoted from its newsroom, re-read on 1 October; the newsroom does not date them, and the timing of the third is as reported by Gulf News. The GCAA's statement is as reported by Khaleej Times and Gulf News, the NTSC's by Anadolu Agency, and Israel's six-day suspension by Ynet and Calcalist. The Indian embassy's words are from its post on X. Tabuk Airport's statement is as reported by Asharq News, read in Arabic; its times are local, three hours ahead of UTC. Other official statements are given as published by the outlets that carried them: Israeli officials' by CNN, the Times of Israel and Ynet, the senior Israeli official's by the Times of Israel from Channel 12, the Israeli official's by the Jerusalem Post, and the regional official's by the Associated Press. The passenger accounts are as reported by the Times of Israel and the Associated Press, from Channel 12, by Maariv, from i24news, by N12 and by the Jerusalem Post. Maariv and N12 were read in Hebrew.

Some reports have carried further claims about the pilots, including the co-pilot's nationality, that no official statement we have read confirms. They are not repeated here. The captain's name and nationality are given because India's embassy stated them.

The photograph shows A6-FMN, another flydubai Boeing 737 MAX 8, not the aircraft involved.

This account reflects what was on the record at 06:00 UTC on 1 October 2026. It was first published at 08:40 UTC on 30 September and updated through that day.

Sources