On Wednesday morning at approximately 9:30 local time, Tali Manes was accompanying her six-year-old daughter, Nina, to the restroom on a routine flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv when she heard intense banging on the cockpit door.
Manes, who works as a bank executive in Israel, promptly alerted a nearby flight attendant about the alarming situation. When she received no response, she raised her voice, exclaiming, “Something is happening in there!” Moments later, the flight attendant approached the cockpit door and opened it, as recounted by Manes during an interview with Israel’s Channel 12.
The scene that unfolded inside was terrifying: blood was splattered across the walls of the cockpit, where a violent altercation was ongoing between the severely injured pilot and the co-pilot, who was wielding a sharp weapon. At that moment, the Boeing 737 was left without a pilot at the controls.
Manes cried out, “He’s stabbing the pilot, he’s stabbing the pilot, come help!”
While many aspects of the incident aboard flight FZ 1073 remain unclear, subsequent events have been documented through witness accounts and video footage.
As the aircraft began a steep descent, plummeting 16,000 feet in roughly a minute, the majority of the 182 passengers reacted with screams, prayers, and attempts to comfort frightened children. However, a small group of individuals surged toward the cockpit and succeeded in subduing the co-pilot. Among them was a plumber who recalled a maneuver he had seen in documentaries about aviation disasters to pull the aircraft out of its nosedive.
Two off-duty pilots who were on board, both from outside Israel, took control of the nearly uncontrollable aircraft and guided it to a safe landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, approximately 90 minutes later. During this time, Manes assisted in restraining the co-pilot with a telephone cord while a dentist provided care to the injured pilot, Smit Machchhar. Manes described their survival as a “great miracle” upon eventually reaching Tel Aviv on an emergency flight ten hours later.
In a video conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, broadcasted live, Machchhar, who is currently recovering in a hospital in Abu Dhabi, shared that he had been “fighting for my life.”
The pilot managed to alert air traffic control about the assault and, as his strength waned, he was able to unlock the cockpit security door. “I suffered numerous wounds. I had fallen down,” Machchhar explained. “At one point, I realized that if I didn’t get up … then passengers would lose their lives.”
The identity of the co-pilot responsible for the attack remains unknown, but regional sources indicate he was an Omani national who had been with flydubai, a carrier owned by the UAE government, for a duration of five to nine months.
In Israel, there is a strong consensus regarding the co-pilot’s motivations. Arik Arad, chairman of the aviation cybersecurity consultancy Cyviation and former head of security at Ben Gurion Airport, stated, “The co-pilot is a terrorist who attempted either to hijack the plane or crash it as a suicide mission. The worst-case scenario is that he aimed to reach Israel.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has alleged that the co-pilot underwent “Islamist radical indoctrination,” claiming that investigators discovered evidence on social media indicating a desire to “kill Jews.” Netanyahu added that the attacker shouted to the crew, “Kill me, kill me,” suggesting clear suicidal intentions.
Experts noted that instances of suicide by pilot, where the pilot’s primary objective is to end their own life through a crash rather than using the aircraft as a weapon, are rare. A notable case occurred in 2015 when a co-pilot of a German airline flight, who had concealed his mental health issues, deliberately crashed the plane, resulting in the deaths of himself and 150 others. There have also been disputes regarding the cause of an Air India 787 incident in Ahmedabad last year, which some suggested was due to a pilot intentionally cutting fuel to the engines.
Terrorism specialists expressed skepticism about the notion that the flydubai co-pilot’s sole motive was suicide. Colin Clarke, an expert from the Soufan Center in New York, remarked, “The likelihood that a pilot would choose to end their life while flying a plane full of Israelis is extremely low.” He continued, “Netanyahu has a vested interest in framing this as terrorism, but the most plausible explanation is likely terrorism. The critical question is whether the co-pilot was recruited by an organization or radicalized independently, and if so, what influenced him, particularly given the context of flying with a load of Israelis.”
Security agencies have been cautioning about a rise in radicalization across the Middle East, fueled by the ongoing conflict in Gaza, which recently reached a fragile ceasefire after a year of hostilities. However, there is limited evidence to suggest that violent extremist groups have gained traction as a result of this conflict.
Experts have pointed to the possibility that al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen and known for its attempts to undermine aviation security, could be linked to such an attack. They noted that AQAP has recently sought to incite or orchestrate violence on a global scale.
“Aviation remains a classic form of propaganda,” Clarke stated. “Terrorism has often been described as theatre, and nothing is more dramatic than the act of downing an airplane. It results in casualties, garners media attention, and disseminates a message, making it the ultimate form of a terrorist attack.”
This incident raises numerous questions regarding aviation security. The changes implemented to cockpit design post-9/11, which allow pilots to lock cockpit doors from the inside, have been a topic of debate among experts. Had Machchhar’s desperate attempts to gain access to the flight deck been unsuccessful, it is likely that all individuals aboard flight FZ 1073 would have perished.
Additionally, there are pressing concerns about the screening processes for pilots. Such measures can be costly for airlines and might lead to operational challenges.
