Israel to Join Questioning After Alleged Attempt to Crash Dubai-Tel Aviv Flight

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will pursue the investigation into the co-pilot accused of trying to crash flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, but said it was too early to say who was ultimately behind the attempt.

The trouble began on the flight deck, where one pilot stabbed the other in what officials described as an apparent attempt to take control of the aircraft. The flight was carrying more than 170 people, most of them from Israel. Israeli officials later identified the alleged attacker as the co-pilot, who stabbed the pilot Reuters.

Control was lost for a short period. The diverted aircraft dropped 14,000 feet before the crew regained control, according to Israeli officials. Passengers rushed the cockpit, wrestled control from the alleged attacker, steadied the plane and made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia The Guardian.

Passenger Yaniv Hayoun said he grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold, and dragged him out of the cockpit. That intervention allowed the remaining crew and passengers to stabilize the aircraft for the diversion. No further detail on injuries to the pilot or passengers was provided in the verified accounts.

Netanyahu said the pilot accused of the stabbing was being questioned by Saudi authorities and was expected to soon be taken to the UAE. He said he had spoken with the UAE's president, who agreed Israel would join the interrogation of the suspect. Netanyahu also ordered tighter checks on pilots flying to Israel after the incident.

Officials in Jerusalem and Washington have not named who was behind the attempt. Netanyahu told Fox News host Sean Hannity it was "too early to say" when asked about indication of Iranian involvement. Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon called the incident a "terror attack" but said Israel could not yet link it to a terror state or terror organisation. Israel's foreign ministry briefed diplomats that the incident was an "attempted terrorist attack against Israelis, the United Arab Emirates, and the Abraham Accords," the 2020 agreements that normalized ties between Israel and the UAE. U.S. President Donald Trump said after speaking to Netanyahu that the incident remained unclear.

Flydubai said its flights to and from Israel would be suspended while the investigation takes place. The carrier urged all parties to refrain from premature speculation while authorities gather the facts.

The broader context here is jurisdictional as much as political. A UAE-registered aircraft, departing Dubai for Tel Aviv with a predominantly Israeli manifest, now sits in Saudi Arabia with its suspect in Saudi custody pending transfer to the UAE and with Israeli investigators seeking access. That triangle requires close coordination on evidence, chain of custody, meaning a documented record of who holds each piece of evidence, and access to interrogations. It is a bit like three offices sharing one case file without losing pages, and it tests security cooperation between states that do not all have the same formal ties with Israel.

Looking at what this means for flying and diplomacy, two tracks will run at the same time. Investigators must establish insider intent, cockpit access rules and crew vetting, meaning background checks on pilots and staff. Diplomats must manage public language. Jerusalem is already describing the target set broadly to include Israelis, the UAE and the Abraham Accords framework, while withholding attribution to any state or organisation. That gap between classification and attribution leaves room for further disclosures once the three-way questioning proceeds.