Israeli ministers call the flydubai stabbing jihadist terror before any investigator does

Flydubai FZ1073 left Dubai for Tel Aviv on the morning of Wednesday 30 September. The co-pilot stabbed Captain Smit Machchhar in the cockpit; passengers broke in and subdued him. Israel Hayom reported the crew squawked 7700, general emergency, then escalated to 7500, active hijacking. Flight-tracking data cited by CNN shows the aircraft descending 17,400 feet in under two minutes. Off-duty crew travelling on board landed it in Saudi Arabia, where the co-pilot was arrested; passengers reached Ben Gurion the same day on a replacement aircraft. Netanyahu, who put the number of Israelis on board at more than 170, said the captain and passengers had “managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster” and called it “a highly severe security incident.” The Times of Israel named three passengers who entered the cockpit — Yaniv Hayun, photographed at Ben Gurion with blood on his shirt, Assaf Rajwan and Shota Musayev — and reported that an Indian national used the “last moments of his energy” to click the door open.

Defence Minister Israel Katz told Israeli media the incident “was a jihadist terrorist attack attempt.” NBC News, reporting the quote, noted he did not say how he reached that conclusion. The airline’s own spokesperson told NBC that “at this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation,” and urged “all parties to refrain from premature speculation while authorities gather the facts.” Newsweek reports that investigators have not publicly determined whether the goal was to crash the aircraft, and counts three parallel inquiries — Saudi, Israeli and Emirati. The co-pilot’s reported Omani citizenship rests, as of today, on Israel Hayom, a right-leaning paper founded by Sheldon Adelson; it did not appear in the wire copy retrieved. After a call with Netanyahu, Donald Trump said the man “was perhaps a terrorist or a whack-job.”

Assessment: Two suspensions were announced for the same route, and the order matters. Flydubai said it halted Israel flights pending investigation; Transport Minister Miri Regev said she instructed aviation authorities to halt them, and directed the Civil Aviation Authority to audit the carrier’s hiring against aviation arrangements her ministry says restrict crews on Israeli routes to passport holders from states with formal relations with Israel. One version is a Gulf airline exercising caution; the other is Israel punishing it. Readers should hold the motive question open: the strongest claim available today is a stabbing, not an established plot, and the only authority asserting otherwise is a minister campaigning 27 days before a vote.