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hijackings

Captain Smit Machchhar (left) speaks by video chat to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on October 2, 2026. (Screenshots via X)
October 2, 2026, 1:38 pm
‘I couldn’t let all of them die’: Flydubai captain recounts opening cockpit door with ‘last push’ after copilot stabbed him
Smit Machchhar tells India’s Modi he collapsed from wounds but was determined to save passengers as Tel Aviv-bound plane dropped 14,000 feet; his actions enabled Israelis to enter cockpit, tackle the copilot terrorist
By Agencies and ToI Staff
Among the saviors of a flydubai airliner after a September 30, 2026, attack by its copilot: L-R top row: Captain Smit Machchhar (Danny Danon via X), Asaf Rajuan (Jack GUEZ/AFP); L-R bottom row: Yaniv Hayun (AP Photo/Tomer Appelbaum), Tzvika Manes. (Screenshot/Channel 12)
October 1, 2026, 12:53 am
Hailing pilot and three Israeli heroes, passengers say midair ‘miracles’ thwarted alleged attempt to crash plane
Indian flydubai pilot saluted for using ‘last moments of his energy’ to click open cockpit door so knife-wielding copilot could be subdued by Israelis, one of whom says he knew how to stabilize plane from watching TV show about air crashes
By ToI Staff, Emanuel Fabian, Sharon Wrobel and Nava Freiberg
A flydubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft is pictured on the tarmac after landing at Ben Gurion Airport on September 30, 2026. (Jack GUEZ/AFP)
September 30, 2026, 9:20 pm
Israel maintains unique air security arrangements, but flydubai incident shows vulnerabilities
With air marshals, screening and cockpit rules — not to mention the IAF — Israel has famously secure civil flights. Does that help when foreign airlines have different rules?
By Lazar Berman and Emanuel Fabian
A passenger is seen with a bloodied shirt aboard a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv that suffered an emergency mid-air, with the copilot subdued after stabbing the captain in an alleged attempt to crash the plane full of Israelis, September 30, 2026 (Social media: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
September 30, 2026, 2:44 pm
Copilot subdued after stabbing pilot in alleged attempt to crash plane full of Israelis
Flydubai flight from UAE lands safely in Saudi Arabia with no non-crewmembers seriously hurt after Israeli passengers rush cockpit, subdue stabber; Israeli warplanes were scrambled
By Emanuel Fabian, Lazar Berman and ToI Staff
Israeli F-16 fighter jets fly over a beach in Tel Aviv during the annual Independence Day flyover, May 5, 2022. (Jack Guez/AFP)
June 30, 2026, 10:08 pm
IDF scrambles fighter jets after hijacking false alarm; flight lands safely in Bulgaria
LOT Polish Airlines flight, operated by Electra Airways, sends mistaken alert over Turkey, drawing Israeli and Bulgarian military planes; airline blames transponder malfunction
By Emanuel Fabian and ToI Staff
Michel Cojot as a young man visiting New York. (From 'To Kill A Nazi,' courtesy of the Cojot family)
June 20, 2026, 9:16 am
Entebbe raid’s unsung hero gets limelight in new documentary 50 years later
Filmmaker Boaz Dvir makes case that rescue operation would not have been possible without key role played by French-Jewish hostage — and would-be assassin of a Nazi — Michel Cojot
By Renee Ghert-Zand
An illustrative photo of a private jet. (Eisenlohr via iStock by Getty Images)
April 18, 2025, 9:51 am
US man shot and killed on small plane in Belize after attempting to hijack aircraft
Plane lands safely after assailant stabs three people including pilot; Belizean authorities say motives unclear, hijacker was an American military veteran
By MEGAN JANETSKY and JULIE WATSON
Palestinian terrorists celebrate the blowing up of a Boac Airliner hijacked to Dawson's field, a desert airstrip North of Amman, Jordan, September 14, 1970. (AP Photo)
September 7, 2024, 3:40 pm
On anniversary of 1970 Black September hijacking, six survivors on life after captivity
As Hamas continues to hold 97 hostages kidnapped on October 7, marking the September 6 PFLP terror group’s takeover of four planes paints new wounds in an old light
By Mati Wagner
The Indian Navy thwarts a hijacking attempt of the MV Lila Norfolk in the Arabian Sea, January 5, 2024. (Indian Navy)
January 5, 2024, 9:25 pm
Indian Navy rescues ship crew from hijack attempt in Arabian Sea
21 crew members evacuated after group of armed men boarded MV Lila Norfolk; no group immediately claims responsibility for attack, amid repeated incidents involving Houthis
By Agencies
Debris left over from the Swissair, TWA and BOAC flights that were hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and blown up on a landing strip in the Jordanian desert on September 12, 1970. (AFP)
June 7, 2023, 4:23 pm
Trauma revisited: Historian reconstructs her week aboard a hijacked jet in Jordan
For close to 50 years, Martha Hodes buried memories of being on a plane hijacked by Palestinian terrorists in 1970 – until she decided to uncover all she could about the ordeal
By Amy Spiro
The Greek-flagged oil tanker Prudent Warrior, one of the ships seized by Iran, is seen as it sails past Istanbul, Turkey, April 19, 2019. (Dursun Çam via AP)
May 27, 2022, 11:38 pm
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard seizes two Greek oil tankers in Persian Gulf
Helicopter-launched raids mark the first such incident in months, as tensions rise amid the West’s lagging nuclear talks with the regime; Greece calls incident ‘piracy’
By Jon Gambrell and NICHOLAS PAPHITIS
Security forces help passengers and crew off Sabena flight 571, following its 1972 hijacking at Lod Airport (Ron Ilan/Israel Defense Forces Archive)
May 19, 2022, 4:01 pm
‘Mechanics are en route’: Defense Ministry releases logs from 1972 Sabena hijacking
Military archive marks 50 years since ‘Operation Isotope’ when Sayeret Matkal commandos disguised as technicians stormed flight 571 to rescue passengers from Palestinian terrorists
By Emanuel Fabian
This frame grab from a video shows Iranian Revolutionary Guard speed boats, center, in front of a US warship, left, amid the seizure of a Vietnamese-flagged oil tanker, right, in the Gulf of Oman on November 3, 2021. (Revolutionary Guard via AP)
November 10, 2021, 11:33 am
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says it released seized Vietnamese oil tanker
Tehran says vessel has been emptied of oil cargo; ship suspected of trying to transfer sanctioned Iranian crude to Asia; vessel anchored in international waters; no details on crew
By Agencies
A Shiite Muslim hijacker armed with a Soviet-made AK-47 rifle looks from the open door of the Trans World Airlines jet held at Beirut International Airport in Lebanon, Wednesday, June 19, 1985. (AP Photo/Herve Merliac)
October 9, 2021, 12:43 am
Wanted Hezbollah terrorist behind 1985 TWA hijacking said to have died
Ali Atwi among those sought by FBI for involvement in 17-day ordeal during which US Navy diver Robert Stethem was tortured and murdered; Hezbollah mourns ‘loyal man’
By AFP
Israeli commandos in a black-painted Mercedes-Benz. (Defense Ministry archive)
August 23, 2021, 4:51 am
Entebbe in person: A new oral history challenges official account of 1976 rescue
Brimming with detail and at times looking to settle old scores, newly translated book ‘Entebbe Declassified’ brings voices of the commandos who took part in the legendary operation
By Judah Ari Gross
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