A day after a FlyDubai co-pilot made a violent attempt to crash the airliner and was subdued by passengers and other crew members, questions about his identity and motive continued to arise Thursday. The flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv was approaching Israel when the co-pilot allegedly stabbed the flight’s captain and tried to crash the plane, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. The captain was able to fight off the co-pilot long enough to open the cockpit door. The passengers then overpowered the co-pilot and two off-duty pilots who were on the flight managed to gain control of the plane and make an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. There were 174 people on board the plane. No passengers were seriously injured in the incident. The pilot suffered stab wounds in the attack. Saudi authorities said two crew members were hospitalized with unspecified injuries and the co-pilot remained in custody Thursday. Who was FlyDubai’s co-pilot? The flight’s co-pilot has not yet been publicly identified. An Omani official confirmed to CBS News that the attacker was born in Oman and currently holds Omani citizenship, but the Omani government has not publicly confirmed his nationality. A Dubai-bound FlyDubai flight is seen before taking off from Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on September 30, 2026. Jack GUEZ /AFP via Getty Images Co-pilot’s motive unknown The co-pilot’s motive in the alleged attack is unknown. Netanyahu speculated to CBS News on Wednesday that the incident looked like “a suicide attempt,” referring to witnesses who said the co-pilot had attempted to jam the plane’s equipment rather than stabilize it. After passengers subdued the co-pilot, he screamed for someone to kill him, Netanyahu told Fox News on Thursday. In the same interview with Fox, Netanyahu said that “personal information” gathered during the ongoing interrogation had led Israel to the conclusion that the co-pilot “suffered from radical Islamist indoctrination.” He did not offer more information. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday called the incident “an attempted jihadist terrorist attack” and referred to the co-pilot as a “terrorist.” President Trump suggested Thursday that the co-pilot could be linked to Iran, “based on what I’m hearing.” “We’re working on it right now,” Trump said. “They’re being very open with us. I would say the answer, from what I’m hearing, is yes. But we’re working on it right now.” His comments went further than those of Netanyahu, who told Fox that it was “too early to say” whether Iran was involved. An Israeli security official told CBS News that authorities were investigating the possibility that the incident may have been an attempted 9/11-style terrorist attack, and were also investigating whether the attacker was working alone. Netanyahu has warned in recent days of growing, unspecified security threats against Israel and its interests amid its ongoing operations against Iran’s ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The co-pilot will be questioned in the United Arab Emirates The co-pilot was immediately arrested. He was “being interrogated by Saudi authorities” on Wednesday, Netanyahu said. Netanyahu said Israeli authorities would “join the interrogation and find out exactly what happened there,” but did not say when that might happen. Netanyahu did not specify whether the interrogation that led investigators to believe the co-pilot had been subjected to “radical Islamist indoctrination” was carried out by Saudi or Israeli authorities. A senior Israeli official told CBS News’ Dov Lieber on Thursday that UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan personally told Netanyahu on Wednesday that he expected Saudi authorities to transfer the co-pilot to the UAE for questioning. Saudi Arabia said Thursday afternoon that the co-pilot had been transferred to the United Arab Emirates, the Associated Press reported. More from CBS News Go deeper with The Free Press in:
