Flydubai Co-Pilot Allegedly Sought Airline Job To Carry Out Tel Aviv Attack
Co-Pilot Allegedly Chose Flydubai Because It Flew To Israel
Why The Flydubai Investigation Has Deepened
Investigators are examining claims that the co-pilot deliberately sought work with an airline serving Tel Aviv before the mid-air attack on Flight FZ1073.
The investigation into the attempted attack aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073 has moved backwards in time.
The co-pilot accused of attacking the captain during the Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight on 30 September allegedly told interrogators in the United Arab Emirates that he had planned an attack before Flydubai hired him. Two Israeli officials with knowledge of the investigation said he had searched for airlines flying to Tel Aviv before applying to the Dubai-based carrier.
A separate source briefed on the UAE investigation said the co-pilot had intended to crash the aircraft into Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv.
Those claims have not yet been presented as the final findings of the UAE investigation, and the co-pilot has not been publicly charged. They nevertheless change the central question surrounding the case. The issue is no longer only what happened inside the cockpit. Investigators are also examining how far back the alleged plan went and how the suspect passed through the recruitment and security systems that placed him on an Israel-bound flight.
The Alleged Plan May Have Started Before Flydubai
The latest account suggests the alleged attack was not conceived during the flight or shortly before it.
According to officials familiar with the investigation, the co-pilot said he had looked for an airline operating services to Tel Aviv and then applied to Flydubai. Another source said he had flown to Tel Aviv earlier in 2026 and had considered hijacking and crashing that flight before deciding not to proceed.
Why he allegedly abandoned that earlier plan has not been formally established.
That distinction is important. An allegation that someone deliberately sought employment with an airline because it provided access to a particular destination would make recruitment itself part of the attack chronology.
It would also place much greater weight on the background checks conducted before the co-pilot was hired and on the continuing security assessments applied after employment.
The previous Flydubai cockpit attack already raised questions about how a violent confrontation could develop inside a commercial flight deck. The latest allegation pushes those questions further back.
What UAE Investigators Have Officially Said
The most important official development came on 3 October.
The UAE Attorney-General, Hamad Saif Al Shamsi, said the investigation had established that the co-pilot attempted to carry out a terrorist act aboard FZ1073.
He said the co-pilot attacked the captain inside the flight deck with a crash axe and attempted to take control of the aircraft's controls. The investigation is continuing into the full circumstances, motive and any possible links connected to the incident.
That is stronger than the cautious language used immediately after the flight.
Flydubai initially confirmed that an incident had occurred while FZ1073 was travelling from Dubai to Ben Gurion International Airport and that the aircraft had landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. It said all passengers were safe and accounted for.
The airline's early statement did not establish a motive.
The UAE investigation has now gone further by describing the incident as an attempted terrorist act. It has not, however, publicly completed the wider question of whether the co-pilot acted alone, whether another person or organisation was involved, or when every part of the alleged plan was formed.
Flight FZ1073 Was Already An Extraordinary Security Failure
The events on board were severe even before the latest allegations emerged.
During the flight, the captain, Smit Machchhar, was attacked in the cockpit. The aircraft then entered a rapid descent before passengers and crew helped overpower the co-pilot.
A reserve Flydubai pilot who was travelling on the aircraft eventually took control and landed it safely at Tabuk in north-western Saudi Arabia.
More than 170 passengers and crew were on board.
The captain survived and was later praised for helping to open access to the cockpit despite being injured. The passengers and crew who intervened also became part of the emergency response.
Taylor Tailored's earlier account of the violent cockpit emergency and Saudi diversion showed how quickly the flight moved from a routine service into a struggle for control of the aircraft.
The new evidence being examined by investigators concerns what happened before any passenger boarded.
The Recruitment Question Is Now Central
If the pre-employment account is confirmed, investigators will need to establish what information was available when the co-pilot was recruited.
They will also need to know whether any earlier employer, regulator or security service had information that should have affected his suitability to fly commercially or operate routes to Israel.
The investigation has already expanded internationally.
Authorities are examining periods the suspect spent in Australia and New Zealand. He had previously been enrolled at RMIT University in Melbourne. Royal Air Maroc has said he completed several months of theoretical training in 2025 but was later rejected for employment.
There are also unresolved questions around his nationality and assignment to the Tel Aviv route.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said pilots who are citizens of countries without diplomatic relations with Israel, including Oman, are not permitted to operate flights into the country. The co-pilot has been identified by sources as an Omani national, although UAE authorities and Flydubai have not publicly named him.
How he came to operate the route is therefore now part of the wider security examination.
Why The Tel Aviv Route Matters
The alleged selection of an airline because it flew to Tel Aviv gives the route itself a central place in the investigation.
Ben Gurion is Israel's main international airport and one of the most heavily secured aviation hubs in the world. A successful attempt to crash a commercial aircraft there would have created consequences far beyond the passengers on one flight.
It would also have struck directly at the aviation relationship that developed between the UAE and Israel after diplomatic normalisation in 2020.
Flydubai became one of the most visible symbols of that opening, connecting Dubai and Tel Aviv with regular commercial services.
That makes the alleged pre-employment planning particularly serious. If investigators establish that the suspect deliberately used commercial recruitment as a route towards an attack, the case would become a test not only of cockpit security but of how airlines screen employees who gain long-term access to aircraft.
What Has Not Been Established
Several parts of the story remain unresolved.
The UAE has not publicly announced formal charges against the co-pilot.
The full interrogation record has not been released.
The claim that he planned the attack before joining Flydubai comes through officials familiar with the investigation rather than a completed public prosecution case.
Investigators have also not announced evidence establishing that a foreign government or militant organisation directed the attack.
That matters because the wider Middle East security environment makes the case vulnerable to speculation. The current Iran conflict and regional confrontation creates an obvious political backdrop, but an unresolved investigation should not be turned into evidence of state involvement without proof.
The UAE Attorney-General has said investigators are still examining motives, links, technical evidence and digital material.
Those findings will determine whether the emerging picture holds.
For now, the most consequential allegation is already clear: investigators are examining whether the man accused of trying to seize a passenger aircraft did not merely attack a flight he happened to be operating, but deliberately sought a job that could put him on a route to Israel.
If confirmed, the most difficult question for Flydubai and aviation authorities will not be what happened on 30 September.
It will be how someone allegedly planning it was allowed to reach the cockpit in the first place.
Sources
Reuters — Co-pilot planned flydubai attack before joining airline, two Israeli officials say — Supports the allegation that the co-pilot planned the attack before employment, searched for airlines serving Tel Aviv and had considered an earlier attack.
Emirates News Agency — Planning, attempted terrorist act behind flydubai flight FZ1073 incident: Attorney-General — Official UAE statement that the co-pilot attempted a terrorist act, attacked the captain with a crash axe and tried to control the aircraft.
Flydubai — Updates on FZ 1073 DXB-TLV on 30 September 2026 — Airline confirmation of the original incident, diversion to Tabuk and passenger safety.
Next Reads
Passengers Foil Alleged Attempt To Crash Flydubai Jet After Pilot Is Stabbed Mid-Flight — The fuller account of the cockpit attack, passenger intervention and the investigation into motive.
Flydubai Cockpit Violence Sends Israel-Bound Jet Plunging Before Saudi Emergency Landing — The first chronology of the emergency as the aircraft diverted to Saudi Arabia.
Iran War Explained: What Led to It, What Has Happened, and Why Hormuz Could Decide What Comes Next — Wider regional context for the security tensions surrounding Israel, the Gulf and current speculation about external involvement.
