An Israeli passenger identified as Yaniv told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he put the co-pilot of Flydubai flight FZ1073 in a chokehold, helped drag him from the cockpit and returned to the controls as the aircraft plunged. “I pulled the controls up and stopped the plane's dive. Lucky I watched Air Crash Investigation,” he said after returning to Israel. The Dubai to Tel Aviv flight carried about 180 passengers.

In the account given to Netanyahu, the wounded captain opened the cockpit door before collapsing, allowing passengers to enter while the attacker was trying to destroy the aircraft's systems. The captain was identified as Smit Machchhar, an Indian national based in Dubai, correcting Israeli officials' earlier description of him as Emirati. Flydubai said additional crew traveling aboard secured the aircraft and landed it safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

Defense Minister Israel Katz called the incident a “jihadist terrorist attack attempt,” saying preliminary information indicated the attacker intended to crash the plane with everyone aboard. Flydubai said the reasons and motives remained unknown and under investigation. Both pilots were hospitalized in Saudi Arabia. After the passengers returned to Israel on a replacement aircraft, Magen David Adom said a 51-year-old man was being taken to hospital in good condition with an upper-body injury.