Flydubai passengers: ‘We heard screams, the planed dived, there was blood in the cockpit; Israelis helped subdue attacker’

A Flydubai passenger aircraft takes off from Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv on February 25, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
A Flydubai passenger aircraft takes off from Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv on February 25, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

A passenger on the flydubai plane that made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia describes harrowing scenes to Channel 12.

“We heard screams on the plane. Then they opened the cockpit and we saw blood, and someone had stabbed the pilot with a pocketknife,” the unnamed woman tells the network via text message.

Though there is very little official information at this point, it is believed that a violent altercation developed between the two pilots.

The woman says Israeli passengers helped restrain an attacker along with members of the crew. “We prayed, ‘Shema Yisrael,’” she says. “There were also moments when we thought we weren’t going to make it out alive.”

Another woman, identifying herself as noam, tells the network in a call: “Screams began on the plane… by passengers who realized what was happening. We understand that one of the pilots was stabbed and seriously wounded, and they lost control of the plane. It started to dive quickly. It was very scary.”

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