Israel Names Omani Co-Pilot as FlyDubai Cockpit Attacker, Saudi Arabia Has Not Confirmed His Identity or Arrest

Since FlyDubai Flight FZ1073 diverted to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday morning after a bloody struggle in the cockpit, Israeli officials have filled in names and motive that weren't available when the plane first went down. Saudi Arabia, which is actually holding the aircraft, the crew, and the alleged attacker, has confirmed very little of it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said one pilot stabbed the other and "apparently attempted to crash the plane with everyone on board" as the flight approached Israeli airspace from Dubai. He said a passenger and a crew member broke into the cockpit, subdued the attacker, and a second flight crew member then stabilized the aircraft. "They saved many lives. They prevented a heavy disaster," Netanyahu said, according to CNBC.

Israeli officials identified the alleged attacker as the co-pilot, an Omani national, according to CNBC, NPR and the Guardian. The captain he allegedly stabbed has been identified by the Times of India as Smit Machchhar, an Indian citizen based in Dubai with 13 years of Boeing 737 experience who joined FlyDubai in 2022 after 11 years at SpiceJet. Witnesses described Machchhar as drenched in blood and repeatedly stabbed.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz went further than Netanyahu, calling it "an attempted jihadist terrorist attack" and saying "the terrorist had a single objective: to crash the plane, killing everyone onboard." Katz did not explain publicly how he reached that conclusion. CNBC reported that Israeli officials, speaking anonymously, said their current assessment rules out a mental health explanation for either pilot's actions.

That certainty came only after an earlier, more cautious message. Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for Netanyahu's office, initially told Reuters the incident did not appear to be a hijacking and was a "different incident." He later said there was "a strong opinion" it was a terror attack, "but we can't be sure until we debrief everybody," adding Israel has no leads yet on whether the attacker acted alone.

Passengers gave vivid, harrowing accounts of a stabbing and a plane diving toward the ground. But no formal investigation has concluded, no charges have been filed, and the international bodies that would normally lead an aviation safety probe have not issued findings. Treating Katz's characterization as an established fact would get ahead of the evidence.

Saudi authorities have been far more restrictive. A statement from Cluster2, the company managing the country's airports, said only that the captain and first officer were being treated in a hospital and that "the relevant authorities are conducting the necessary investigations." Saudi Arabia has not confirmed Netanyahu's claim that the attacker was arrested and is being interrogated, nor has it confirmed the Omani national's identity. Neither Oman nor the United Arab Emirates has commented publicly, according to the Guardian.

Flight-tracking data shows relevant detail. The Guardian and Euronews reported the plane transmitted squawk code 7700, a general emergency signal, followed by code 7500, which indicates a possible hijacking, before diving from 33,000 feet to roughly 17,000 feet within about a minute, according to Flightradar24. NBC News and CBS News, also citing Flightradar24, put a sharper number on part of that dive: 14,125 feet in 29 seconds. The figures aren't necessarily contradictory; they may describe different portions of an erratic flight path. But no single, consistent altitude timeline has been published by Flightradar24 or FlyDubai itself. ZeroHedge additionally reported that photos of the aircraft at Tabuk appear to show damage to the rudder, a claim that has not been confirmed by FlyDubai or Saudi officials.

A still-unanswered question raised by Israeli officials speaking to CNN, and relayed by ZeroHedge: how did an Omani national end up on the flight deck of a flight bound for Israel, given that Oman and Israel have no formal diplomatic relations. That detail is under scrutiny as part of the broader investigation into flight crew screening at FlyDubai, a Dubai-based carrier that operates extensively across a region with complicated diplomatic lines.

FlyDubai has stuck to caution in its own public statements, saying the "underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation," and urging against "premature speculation." The airline said it dispatched aircraft to Tabuk to bring the roughly 180 passengers, most of them Israeli and including at least one American citizen according to two U.S. officials cited by NBC News, on to Tel Aviv.

The incident lands about a week before the third anniversary of Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and weeks ahead of an Israeli election, a timing PBS noted alongside Netanyahu's recent public warnings of heightened, unspecified security threats. Israeli fighter jets were scrambled during the emergency over fears the plane was being hijacked toward Israel, an official confirmed to PBS, before officials concluded it was not.

What happens next depends on Saudi Arabia, which is holding the injured crew and the suspect and has said only that an investigation is underway. Whether Riyadh confirms the attacker's nationality, the circumstances of any arrest, or hands him over for prosecution elsewhere remains an open question that Israeli officials, so far, cannot answer on their own.