Passengers stop co-pilot stabbing captain in Tel Aviv crash bid

ABC News posted its full Sept. 30 broadcast of World News Tonight with David Muir to YouTube. The channel’s own description puts correspondent Tom Soufi Burridge on a co-pilot accused of stabbing the captain of a Tel Aviv-bound plane while trying to crash it, the jet plunging more than 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds, and the passengers who overpowered the suspect.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacker was arrested after stabbing the other pilot on a flydubai flight from Dubai and “apparently tried to crash the plane.” Passengers and crew then took control, Israeli officials said, and the aircraft landed at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia. Netanyahu identified the wounded captain as Indian national Smit Machchhar and wrote on X that he “saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals.” In the same post he added that Machchhar, “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.”

Flight-tracking data cited by the BBC and other outlets showed a steep descent over Saudi Arabia roughly two and a half hours after departure. Some accounts put the drop at more than 17,000 feet in under two minutes; others at nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds. The plane first squawked 7700, switched to the 7500 hijack code, then returned to 7700 before landing. An Israeli official identified the co-pilot as an Omani national. No motive has been established. Flydubai said the reasons remained unknown, warned against premature speculation, and suspended flights to and from Israel after the episode. A previous flydubai Dubai-Tel Aviv flight had made an emergency landing in Riyadh in September 2025 for a medical incident.

More than ten hours later the passengers reached Ben Gurion Airport on a replacement aircraft, arriving around 15:40 GMT. Yaniv Hayun, one of those who helped restrain the attacker, said the stabbed pilot had been so close to the cockpit door that opening it was difficult until Machchhar got it free. Netanyahu met him at the airport still in a blood-stained shirt and told him, “I see you and I see a lion – a big hero.” Asaf Rajuan, another passenger who joined the struggle, put it simply: “This is something you do without thinking, just running to save your daughter’s life, your family’s life.”

Zvika Meness told Israeli public broadcaster Kan News that he and others tied the co-pilot with the man’s own zip ties and multimedia headphone cables. “There are children and families here who have been through a very severe, highly traumatic event,” Meness said. Lital Shachaf described the same stretch of minutes as survival against expectation. “It was a miracle. It was awful, crazy, and we thank God that we survived it; we didn’t think we would make it but thank God we are in Israel. We are back home. And we are happy to see everyone here.”