The Locked Door a Wounded Flydubai Captain Had to Open

Saudi investigators say the Flydubai co-pilot assaulted Captain Smit Machchhar on flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on September 30, 2026. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 dropped more than 14,000 feet in under 30 seconds, then landed at Tabuk with 174 passengers and eight crew.

The captain, an Indian national, opened the locked cockpit door from the floor while still being hit. Extra flydubai crew already on board then took the jet and put it on the ground.

More Than 14,000 Feet in Under 30 Seconds

FZ1073 left Dubai International at 03:05 UTC as a Boeing 737 MAX 8 registered A6-FKF and climbed to 34,000 feet on the scheduled run to Ben Gurion Airport. Flightradar24’s granular ADS-B data from FZ1073 shows the first wild swings at 05:21 UTC, then a drop of more than 14,000 feet in under 30 seconds.

By 05:33 UTC the jet had settled near 15,000 feet, where height and speed kept oscillating. That 12-minute slide from cruise to the lower block is a different figure from the sharp 30-second bite inside it. Israel scrambled fighter jets after the transponder told a second story.

THE FZ1073 CLOCK

1. 03:05 UTC, September 30, 2026: FZ1073 departs Dubai and climbs to 34,000 feet.
2. 05:21 UTC: Altitude swings begin; seconds later the jet drops more than 14,000 feet in under 30 seconds.
3. 05:28:48 UTC: Transponder shows 7700, the general emergency code, along the Saudi-Jordanian border.
4. 05:35 UTC: Code switches to 7500, unlawful interference; the jet nicks Jordanian airspace, then turns southwest for Tabuk.
5. 8:44 a.m. Tabuk time: Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport’s tower takes a distress call.
6. 9:45 a.m. Tabuk time (06:45 GMT): The aircraft lands. Flightradar24’s last ADS-B hit is 06:58 UTC.
7. 5:40 p.m. Tabuk time: All 174 passengers leave on a replacement flydubai aircraft.

Cluster2 Airports, which runs the Tabuk field, said both the captain and the first officer were hurt and taken to hospital. The rest of the crew later flew back to Dubai. The two men in the seats did not.

Why the Cockpit Door Became the Problem

After September 11, 2001, airlines turned the flight deck into a vault. The door is reinforced, coded, and can be denied from inside. The design assumes the threat is in the cabin trying to get in.

Germanwings Flight 9525 inverted that assumption on March 24, 2015. Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz waited until Captain Patrick Sondenheimer stepped out, locked the door, and flew an Airbus A320 into the French Alps, killing 150 people. The French investigation found Lubitz meant to die while he was alone at the controls.

Three days later, the European Aviation Safety Agency told airlines to keep at least two authorised people in the flight deck at all times, so a pilot could not be locked out. The United States already required that. Australia’s carriers copied it for jets with more than 50 seats.

The rule did not last in that form. EASA’s revised 2016 bulletin told operators to run their own risk assessments instead of treating two-in-the-cockpit as a mandate. German airlines dropped the practice by June 1, 2017, arguing that extra door cycles created other holes. In 2018 the Flight Safety Foundation recorded Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority reaching the same place after carriers found unintended risks of two people in the cockpit, including distraction, extra door openings, and a cabin crew member with no way to stop a determined pilot.

EgyptAir 990 in 1999 had already shown the other failure: a fight for the controls with both pilots in the room. A JetBlue captain was locked out by his own first officer in 2012 and restrained by passengers after a landing in Amarillo, Texas. FZ1073 is closer to EgyptAir than to Germanwings. Both flydubai pilots were inside. The vault still did its job. It kept help out until the wounded man on the floor opened it.

TWO LOCKED-DOOR CASES

Screening, watchlists, and that door were built to stop a stranger. The person they cannot screen is the one who already has the keys.

On-Duty Crew Riding Along Landed the Jet

flydubai’s second statement is the cleanest account of who actually flew the airplane after the fight. It does not name Machchhar. It does not name the first officer. It credits people who were not in the two operating seats.

The aircraft was successfully secured by on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight, who diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk Airport (TUU). All passengers and crew are safe and accounted for.

flydubai spokesperson, company statement, September 30, 2026

Those three flydubai statements on FZ 1073 also say two replacement aircraft went to Tabuk, that other network flying was unaffected, and that motives were unknown. Israeli officials later said the captain, despite serious wounds, got the door open so cabin crew and passengers could come in. Flightradar24’s October 2 update put it in the same order: passengers and another set of pilots gained the flight deck and landed the jet.

One Israeli briefing has said two extra flydubai pilots were on the flight because possible rerouting might have pushed the original pair past duty limits. flydubai has not confirmed that staffing note. What the airline has confirmed is that qualified company crew were already in the cabin, and that they are the people who took the airplane to Tabuk.

An Israeli passenger who helped hold the attacker sent a video to his children saying the co-pilot had been tied up and that the incident had been very hard. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Israelis on board helped subdue the co-pilot. A dentist among the passengers treated the wounded captain, according to Israeli officials. That is not in the Saudi or flydubai statements. It is the picture of a cabin that had to become a cockpit.

The First Officer, Still Unnamed, Is in Emirati Hands

Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry, in a statement carried by the Saudi Embassy in Washington, gave the first government finding on October 1. Preliminary work by Saudi authorities, with an Emirati security team, indicated that the first officer had assaulted the captain, and that both men had injuries. The ministry did not name a weapon and did not name the first officer.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the co-pilot stabbed the captain and apparently tried to crash the plane. That is a separate account, not a Saudi finding. flydubai has used only the word “altercation.” President Donald Trump, after a long call with Netanyahu, told reporters he was repeating the story he had been given and did not know if it was true.

Both pilots were treated in Tabuk, then medically cleared. On the morning of October 1 they left for Abu Dhabi with the Emirati security team. The alleged attacker was not left in Saudi custody. UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi ordered a Public Prosecution team the same day, working with the General Civil Aviation Authority, to establish facts, circumstances, and motives, and to check “whether the incident was linked to any terrorist activity or purpose or involved prior planning or direction.” Because the jet is UAE-registered, UAE law applies to crimes on board even outside the country.

The GCAA had already called FZ1073 a security incident that was brought under control. Saudi Arabia’s National Transport Safety Center opened its own inquiry. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE foreign minister, called Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on the night of September 30 to ask after the passengers.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The assault finding: Saudi investigators say the first officer assaulted the captain, and both were hurt.
• Who landed it: flydubai says on-duty company crew travelling on the flight secured the jet and landed it at Tabuk.
• The load: 174 passengers and eight crew; passengers continued at 5:40 p.m. on a replacement aircraft.
• Where the men are: After hospital treatment in Tabuk, both pilots went to Abu Dhabi on October 1 with an Emirati security team.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The first officer’s name: Neither flydubai nor Saudi nor UAE officials have identified him in public.
• Weapon and motive: Netanyahu described a stabbing and a crash attempt; that has not been adopted as a Saudi or UAE finding.
• Direction: The UAE probe is still asking whether anyone planned or directed the attack.

Israeli officials have described the first officer as an Omani national. That identification has not come from Riyadh or Abu Dhabi. Until a charge sheet appears, the man in the right seat is a job title.

Flydubai Suspends Every Tel Aviv Flight

Late on September 30, flydubai said that in coordination with the authorities it would suspend flights to and from Israel while the investigation continues. The carrier called the halt temporary, said it would review the decision as facts arrived, and apologised to passengers whose plans had broken. Emirates, which codeshares with flydubai on the Tel Aviv market, suspended those codeshare operations the same evening.

FZ1073 was not a one-off tourist hop. flydubai publishes multiple daily Dubai-Tel Aviv banks; FZ1073 itself was a scheduled morning departure. From its Dubai base the airline lists more than 125 destinations in 56 countries and a single-type fleet of 98 Boeing 737s, including 69 MAX 8s, and says it has carried more than 137 million passengers since June 2009.

WHAT STOPPED AFTER TABUK

• flydubai Israel flying: All flights to and from Israel paused for the investigation, with a promised review as facts arrive.
• Emirates codeshare: Tel Aviv codeshare with flydubai halted the same night, until further notice.
• The original jet: A6-FKF stayed behind; two replacement aircraft moved people and remaining crew.
• The passengers: All 174 left Tabuk at 5:40 p.m. and reached Ben Gurion on the replacement service.

The UAE thanked Saudi crews for the handling on the ground. Interior officials in Riyadh said the kingdom deals with emergencies under its international obligations and that its aviation and security systems had been ready. For a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight, Tabuk was the nearest long runway when the cockpit was no longer a cockpit.

Smit Machchhar Tells Modi He Opened the Door From the Floor

India’s embassy in Riyadh said Machchhar was in stable condition in Tabuk. The Ministry of External Affairs later confirmed he had been moved to Abu Dhabi. On October 1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him a hero who, though seriously injured, had shown “immense courage and an unwavering resolve to protect the lives of others.”

On October 2, Modi spoke with him by video from the hospital. The video call released by the Prime Minister’s Office is the first time Machchhar has described the minute that mattered. He told Modi he has been flying for 17 years and a captain for 11, and that he could tell what the jet was doing even with his eyes closed.

When I was down on the floor, I sensed that the aircraft was going down. And I knew for sure: This is the one last push, Smit. Just do it. The door is right there. Even as blows were still landing on me, I just managed to open it, sir. Then everyone else arrived. The others also played an equal role in this.

Captain Smit Machchhar, to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, October 2, 2026, video call released by the Prime Minister’s Office

He also said he recites the Hanuman Chalisa when he is afraid, and that he was reciting it through the fight. Modi told him the country was praying for him and that Indians “are not people who take lives, we are people who save lives.” Machchhar called Modi his biggest ideal and became emotional on the call.

An unforgettable conversation with Captain Smit, filled with pride and emotions. pic.twitter.com/CCf46PKOWR

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 2, 2026

The first officer still has no public name. The UAE still has not said whether the assault was a private collapse or a directed attack. flydubai’s Tel Aviv schedule is still parked. What is already on the record is narrower, and harder: a wounded captain on the floor of a locked deck, a door that had to be opened from the wrong side, and extra crew who happened to be riding along when 182 people needed a pilot.