FlyDubai co-pilot who nearly crashed plane was barred from flying by
Oman over extremism concerns
[October 03, 2026]
By SAM MEDNICK and AAMER MADHANI
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The FlyDubai co-pilot who officials said nearly
crashed a Tel Aviv-bound flight with 182 people aboard was barred from
flying by his native Oman over concerns he had adopted extremist views,
a person familiar with the matter said Saturday.
The co-pilot was subsequently hired by the United Arab Emirates-based
airline, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to
discuss the ongoing investigation. It was not immediately clear to what
extent he was vetted when he was hired in the Emirates. Oman’s move to
bar the co-pilot from flying was first reported by the Wall Street
Journal.
The attack left the region’s travel industry in crisis, raising
questions about aviation security and further unsettling a Middle East
already shaken by the U.S.-Iran war. A regional investigation is
underway.
The United Arab Emirates has canceled all flights to Israel,
complicating travel for hundreds of passengers who fly between the
countries on a typical day. Israel and the UAE agreed on repatriation
flights, beginning Friday, to bring back passengers stranded in the UAE
after commercial travel between the two countries was suspended,
according to an Israeli official who was not authorized to comment
publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The first repatriation flight left the UAE shortly before 11 p.m. and
landed in Tel Aviv just after 1 a.m., according to the Ben Gurion
International Airport website.
The airport listed carriers Arkia and Israir with flights scheduled to
arrive from Dubai early Saturday. El Al was expected to fly passengers
from Dubai to Israel on Sunday.
Dubai has been a popular destination for Israelis since Israel and the
UAE established ties in 2020 as part of the Trump administration's
Abraham Accords to normalize ties between Israel and Arab countries.
Attacks raises questions about extremism
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that early information he's
received suggests links between the attack and Tehran but did not
elaborate. Trump also said that if it is determined that Iranian agents
were behind the attack, the United States will “hit them very hard.”
Israeli investigators are involved in the probe but the Emiratis are in
the lead, according to an official who wasn’t authorized to speak to the
media and spoke on condition of anonymity. It’s unclear if the attacker
was part of a group, said the official, adding that there is currently
no evidence of a link with Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the co-pilot had
undergone “Islamist radicalization,” but has provided no evidence to
back the assertion.
“We are now investigating whether he was sent, and whoever sent him will
pay a very heavy price,” Netanyahu said in a video message on Friday.
UAE senior diplomatic adviser Anwar Gargash on Friday called the
FlyDubai attack a “dangerous terrorist act” in a post on X. He credited
the flight captain for preventing a catastrophe.
The moment is a test for the UAE government, which has burnished a
reputation for building effective measures against extremist activities
but has also bristled in the past over criticism of security lapses.
“The Emiratis are going to be interested in protecting their
reputation,” said Jon Alterman, chair of Global Security and Geostrategy
at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“They believe people should see them as a place that’s very secure, not
a place that has serious lapses.”
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People disembark from a FlyDubai carrying Israeli passengers who had
earlier been aboard another FlyDubai aircraft that made an emergency
landing in Saudi Arabia approaches Ben Gurion International Airport
near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel
Schalit)
The FlyDubai flight plummeted to 15,000 feet
Details of the harrowing flight, which other crew members on board
landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday continue to
emerge.
Smit Machchhar, the wounded captain who has been hailed as one of
the heroes of the flight, and the co-pilot were transferred on
Thursday from Saudi Arabia to the UAE, the kingdom said.
Machchhar is recovering in an Abu Dhabi hospital. He spoke with
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a televised video call
Friday, describing the terror he faced after being attacked in the
closed cockpit.
“I had so many wounds. I had fallen down,” he said, his head
bandaged, as he broke into sobs. “I was fighting for my life. At one
point, I realized that if I didn’t get up … then passengers would
lose their lives.”
The first signs of trouble came more than two hours into the flight
when the aircraft suddenly dropped to 16,600 feet — the sharpest
altitude drop recorded by data tracking platforms. But moments
before the nosedive, passengers seated near the front of the plane
heard sounds of a fight inside the cockpit, said passenger Daniel
Schlichter, who was seated in the second row.
Seconds later, it ascended to 21,725 feet before soon dropping back
to 15,000 feet, which it maintained until safely landing more than
an hour later.
“The plane started going down very quickly and we all went back
backwards, like the gravity took us backwards,” Schlichter said. The
shouting of the children as the plane plummeted, he added, was
“horrific.”
“One of the things that I will never forget is the shouting of the
children,” Schlichter said. “I could hear the children shouting, ‘We
don’t want to die! We don’t want to die!’ ”
The captain managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to
enter and restrain the attacker as the Boeing 737 — with 174
passengers and eight crew members, most of them Israelis — descended
sharply.
The passengers wrestled the co-pilot from the cockpit and onto the
floor of the main cabin where they bound his hands with headphones.
They laid the wounded pilot inches from him, and a dentist attended
to his wounds. Schlichter and the dentist, Dr. Shota Musayev, both
said there was no visible knife or other weapon at the front of the
aircraft.
“I could see all the blood on the floor, and I couldn’t believe he
would still be alive because he had so many injuries,” Schlichter
said of the captain.
___
Madhani reported from Jerusalem. AP writers Sally Abou AlJoud in
Brussels, Sam Metz in Ramallah, West Bank, Konstantin Toropin in
Washington, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Anna Johnson in
Washington contributed reporting.
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