The co-pilot’s attempt to crash a Flydubai plane with 174 Israelis aboard somewhere in Israel was foiled. The pilot, though wounded, managed to unlock the cockpit door, and four Israeli passengers rushed in to subdue the co-pilot. One of the four, a plumber by trade, was able to right the plane because, he later explained, he had learned what to do from television shows. Then one of the two pilots who were among the passengers took over and landed the plane safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. It’s quite a story, and there are many lessons to be drawn from the event. More on those lessons can be found here: “Flydubai saga captures Israel’s role in a new Middle East – and its old limits,” by Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post, October 2, 2026:
Wednesday’s flydubai saga crammed the new Middle East into a single aircraft.
An Emirati airline carrying Israelis made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia amid war with Iran – and the incident was immediately drawn into an Israeli election campaign dominated by the question of who can keep the country safe.
Talk about one event bringing everything together.
But beyond the frightening drama aboard the plane, the incident also brought something else into focus: how much the region has changed, and where the limits of that change still lie.
Israelis were flying home on an Emirati airline. When their flight turned into a nightmare, they landed in Saudi Arabia, received medical attention and assistance, and were eventually collected by another Emirati aircraft and brought to Israel.
For all the tensions, wars, and political sensitivities, that sequence is worth noting. The absence of Saudi-Israeli diplomatic relations did not prevent the passengers from receiving help or getting home.
Granted, the Saudis refused to let an Israeli aircraft collect them. That matters and is maddening, especially considering the security and intelligence cooperation that does exist between the two countries. But it need not obscure what they did allow, or turn a story of regional cooperation into a tale primarily about rejection….
But the Israel-UAE relationship will certainly withstand this shock. A relationship that has endured October 7 and wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran rests on interests that one attempted hijacking will not shake. If anything, the incident shows the threats both countries face, why they need each other, and how they can help one another.
The Omani co-pilot, Hammam al-Hammami, a fanatical Muslim intent — as he posted online — on killing Jews, is a brother-in-arms to the terrorists who want to overthrow the regime in the UAE precisely because of that regime’s moderation, its abhorrence of terrorism, its banning of the Muslim Brotherhood, and its eagerness to tighten ties to the Jewish state.
The Saudis have for years benefited from the intelligence that the Israelis supplied to it, though that relationship is kept under wraps so as not to make the Saudi government a target of outraged Muslims who want nothing to do with Israel. That connection, however, does explain the Saudi willingness to have the Flydubai plane full of Israelis land on its territory, and to provide help to those Israeli passengers once they were on Saudi soil.
The UAE has much to answer for. How was an Omani pilot allowed to fly a plane bound for Tel Aviv when the Israeli government had previously made clear to the UAE that only pilots from countries that have diplomatic relations with Israel should fly into Israel. Oman does not have relations with Israel. Was there someone in the UAE vetting the pilots who was disastrously negligent, or was he something far worse — a knowing accomplice in a plot to crash a plane with Israeli passengers? We should soon find out.
somehistory says
Don’t put airliners in the hands of muzzies.
gravenimage says
+1
dumbledoresarmy says
Yep. True dat.
Rob Porter says
Don’t fly Muslim-country airlines like Emirate.
CryHavoc says
I am glad this murder attempt was thwarted, but who will as the tough questios… Such as…
Did Saudi Arabia, the UAE or Oman put that copilot up to this?
Saudi Arabia a CD the UAE and Iran fund most of the ME terrorism.
They are NOT allies of the USA in any way, shape or form. The US Constitution is at direct odds with Sharia Law.
It also makes sense that these places of Sharia Law want to make peace with Israel. Sand under extreme heat makes glass…
Think about that…m
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I read somewhere that that Omani co-pilot previously worked for Omani airlines, but was moved from flying to desk jobs. Obviously they saw something wrong w/ him, which begs the question of why FlyDubai did not catch it
Yeah the Emiratis should limit their pilot pool to Emiratis, Bahreinis, Indians, Sri Lankans, Filipinos and other countries that get along fine w/ Israel
Rob Porter says
It strikes me that Donald Trump is very friend with Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It was Bin Salman who put Trump up to meeting with the new Syrian leader, al-Qaeda/ISIS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, from whom Trump then lifted a $10 million country and then lifted sanctions on Syria. It was a thoroughly sordid affair with al-Sharaa .a butcher of Christians and Yzidis.
Wellington says
Yes, there are many lessons to be drawn from this event but, a guarantee here, many will not learn these lessons.
gravenimage says
All too true, Wellington.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
If anything, they will learn the wrong lessons – do not be islamophobic
gravenimage says
Yes–exactly the *wrong* lesson. Yet this is probably the most common…
Taffy says
The “plumber” did not right the plane from watching TV. My guess is he was a former IAF pilot if he and not one of the [other] two pilots on board pulled the plane out of the dive. I saw pictures of the plane after it landed and the plane suffered significant damage from the airspeed it attained and the aerodynamic forces generated. The rudder was ripped off the plane, and luckily the whole tail section remained (minus rudder). American Airlines Flight 587 (Airbus A-380) crashed in Belle Harbor, when its rudder was ripped off the aircraft when the pilot tried to correct when hitting the wake of a 747 ahead of it. Flying a plane without a rudder is possible, but takes extreme pilot skill.
if the Boeing airframe were designed to the bare minimum required by the FAA (plus the minimum factors of safety required) the tail section would’ve been history at the diving airspeed, and landing without the horizontal tail would’ve been impossible. Whoever righted the plane and brought it back to land exhibited the same exceptional skill as Chesley Sullenberger in the “miracle on the Hudson.”
James Lincoln says
Taffy says,
“The “plumber” did not right the plane from watching TV.”
The details are a little bit fuzzy at this point. Preliminary reports point to Yaniv Hayun, an Israeli plumber, pulling back on the yoke to at least pull the aircraft out of the dive.
Then the airline pilots who were riding in back – and certified in type aircraft – took over control.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Yeah, that plane did have 2 more fully qualified pilots who could take over
Billy says
Remember, Saudi Arabia has ‘Islamized’ Western Universities and Schools with billions of dollars every year to spread Islam and its Organizations in the West. Saudi Arabia is not America’s or Israel’s friend; Saudi Arabia funds, educates, and promotes Muslim hatred, discrimination, segregation, violence, and terrorism against Non-Muslims. Islam and its Muslims are a Criminal-Terrorist-Gang Enterprise against all Non-Muslims.
Public Funding is a privilege that should NOT BE granted to organizations that are against the US Constitution or Western Constitutions. Totalitarian Islam and its Muslim Organizations including Muslim Schools and Mosques are against the US Constitution due to Muslim funding, teaching, and promoting discrimination, segregation, hatred, rape, violence, totalitarianism, and terrorism against Non-Muslims WITH NO EQUALITY UNDER THE LAW to make Islamic Law supreme. Islam’s Muslims are murderous, Totalitarian Terrorists of Allah operating as a Criminal-Terrorist-Gang Enterprise under Islamic Law to ultimately conquer the enemies of Allah, the Non-Muslims, with Islamic Law DBA Islam(Qur’an 8:60; 9:5, 29, 111; 49:15, etc.).
narf says
More truer words could not Have been spoken or shared so politely. Amen amen I SAY to thee,
thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom.
gravenimage says
The Lessons of the Flydubai Event
………………………………………..
My husband recently picked up an old book of humorous Thurber short pieces at the local “Little Library”. In one tale, the narrator–a rather neurotic fellow, a not unfamiliar Thurber type–tells a friend that he has recurring nighmares about flying on a plane where one of the pilots has gone mad and leaves the plane to crash. His very rational friend tells him that even in such an unlikely event, that the copilot would be sane and would take control of the plane.
At which point our neurotic fellow says that he thought of that–but what if the crazy pilot had hit his copilot over the head and knocked him out? At this point his rational friend seems to rather lose his patience.
Of course, this was written decades before it was common to find Muslim pilots…
Billy says
Islam’s Muslims are a continuous, terrorizing problem against Non-Muslims with Muslim discrimination, deceit, segregation, violence, and terrorism as taught in Islamic Law and in Islam’s Qur’an(Qur’an 9:5, 29, 41, 111; 49:15, etc.). The West MUST NOT PUBLICLY FUND Islam and its Muslim Organizations with taxpayer money because Islam and its Organizations including Mosques and Schools are against the USA Constitution and Western Constitutions.
Public Funding is a privilege that should NOT BE granted to organizations that are against the US Constitution or Western Constitutions. Totalitarian Islam and its Muslim Organizations including Muslim Schools and Mosques are against the US Constitution due to Muslim funding, teaching, and promoting discrimination, segregation, hatred, rape, violence, totalitarianism, and terrorism against Non-Muslims WITH NO EQUALITY UNDER THE LAW to make Islamic Law supreme. Islam’s Muslims are murderous, Totalitarian Terrorists of Allah operating as a Criminal-Terrorist-Gang Enterprise under Islamic Law to ultimately conquer the enemies of Allah, the Non-Muslims, with Islamic Law DBA Islam(Qur’an 8:60; 9:5, 29, 111; 49:15, etc.).
dumbledoresarmy says
The Israel-India relationship has been strengthened since this attack, because of the heroism of the NON-MUSLIM Indian Captain of the plane, without whose courageous resistance to the jihadi, and use of his last strength to open the door to allow help to get in, the plane would have been crashed and all aboard killed.
I understand that the Captain – now making a good recovery – and the PM of India have been invited to take part in the lighting of the torch at the next Independence Day ceremony in Israel…. an honour usually reserved for citizens of Israel. If this invitation is accepted, it will be a very powerful image of the relationship between two countries who have much more in common than most people think… because both are ancient nations that suffered over a thousand years of oppressive Muslim rule before near-miraculously regaining sovereignty over part of their ancient homelands.
Let the Lion of Judah and the Tiger of India roar side-by-side.. and let the cowardly and vicious mohammedans beware…
gravenimage says
Hear, hear!