UAE prosecutors say Flydubai co-pilot planned suicide attack on Tel Aviv airport
The UAE attorney general said on Friday that an Omani co-pilot meant to crash a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight into a terminal at Ben Gurion airport. A fellow pilot stopped him on 30 September, and the jet was diverted to Saudi Arabia.
A planned suicide attack
UAE attorney general Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said on Friday that an Omani flydubai co-pilot planned to seize a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight and crash it into a terminal at Israel's Ben Gurion airport on 30 September, before a fellow pilot stopped him. The findings were reported by the state news agency WAM, which said the investigation was launched on 1 October. Prosecutors believe the plot drew inspiration from the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States, and that the suspect wanted to inflict the maximum loss of life possible.
Investigators found that the suspect had used two earlier flights to Tel Aviv to "familiarise himself with the flight route and the airport", according to WAM. Al Shamsi described the plan in the following terms, as relayed by Europa Press:
a suicide operation directed against the passenger terminal of Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, with the intention of causing the greatest possible number of human victims
- Co-pilot attacks captain on Dubai-Tel Aviv flight FZ1073 and the jet plunges 16,000 feet in 30 seconds
- UAE investigation into the incident is launched
- Attorney general announces findings that the attack was a planned suicide attack on Ben Gurion airport
The flight
Flight FZ1073 was carrying 182 people, according to France 24. N-tv put the number at more than 170, most of them Israelis. The jet plunged 16,000 feet in 30 seconds, and part of its rudder was torn away, France 24 reported, before the aircraft made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. Europa Press places the landing at Tabuk airport.
According to the prosecutor's account relayed by Europa Press, the co-pilot attacked the captain inside the cockpit with an emergency axe, and the captain resisted and tried to call for help. N-tv reports that the captain, an Indian national, was severely injured and is being hailed as a hero because he managed to open the cockpit door to get help. Europa Press says the captain of the return flight entered the cockpit and, with a flight attendant and several passengers, subdued the attacker. N-tv describes a spare pilot travelling on the flight who landed the aircraft safely.
The suspect
The suspect is 29 years old, according to Europa Press and Tgcom24. He worked for Oman Air from 2020 to 2024, for Royal Air Maroc in early 2025, and joined flydubai in January 2026, according to what Europa Press says he confessed. Prosecutors said he showed signs of extremist inclinations during his studies in Australia in 2017. No such signs surfaced during his licence, good conduct certificate and required exams, according to the same account.
In questioning, the man told investigators he applied to flydubai because the airline flies to Tel Aviv, N-tv reported. Le Figaro reports that he says he acted alone.
