Saudi Arabia Rejects Israeli Planes for Flydubai Passengers

Saudi Arabia refused to let Israeli military planes land on its soil to collect Israeli passengers from a flydubai flight that made an emergency landing in the kingdom on Wednesday, September 30, two security sources told Reuters. The passengers were instead taken home to Israel on a replacement flydubai aircraft. Saudi Arabia's government media office did not immediately comment on the report.

Flight FZ1073 was flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv with 174 passengers, almost all of them Israelis, when a violent fight broke out in the cockpit. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the co-pilot stabbed the captain and then tried to crash the plane. The jet landed safely at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk, in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

What happened inside the cockpit

Passengers told reporters the plane shook hard and then dropped thousands of feet in about two minutes. People screamed and ran in the aisle. According to Netanyahu, the captain was badly wounded but still fought back and opened the cockpit door, so passengers and crew could get inside and hold the attacker down.

Flydubai said the plane was secured by its own crew members who were travelling on the flight. Two of these pilots took control, diverted the jet and landed it at Tabuk. Netanyahu said Saudi authorities then arrested the co-pilot and started questioning him.

Netanyahu named the injured captain as Smit Machchhar, an Indian pilot who flew for India's SpiceJet for more than 11 years before joining flydubai. The Indian Embassy in Riyadh said he was in stable condition in a Saudi hospital, and Israeli media reported that he had surgery. An Israeli official told Reuters the co-pilot is a citizen of Oman. Flydubai has not named him.

Why Saudi Arabia said no

Saudi Arabia and Israel have no diplomatic relations. One of the security sources said the Israeli air force had been getting Super Hercules transport planes ready to fly to Tabuk. Saudi Arabia did not approve the request. Israeli media reported that the kingdom offered a civilian option instead, which turned out to be another flydubai plane.

The decision upset some passengers, who had already waited for hours at Tabuk after a terrifying flight. Israeli news site Ynet reported that some of them at first refused to board the replacement plane because they were scared to fly with the same airline again. Another Israeli passenger told Al Arabiya that Saudi officials treated the group with respect while they waited. In the end, all the passengers reached Israel safely.

Saudi Arabia has not publicly explained its decision. But it matches the kingdom's long held position. Riyadh has said many times that it will not open formal ties with Israel without a clear path to a Palestinian state, and Israeli air force planes landing in the kingdom would have gone far beyond anything it has allowed so far.

A denial in the same week

The flight drama came only days after another dispute over Saudi and Israeli contacts. Netanyahu visited Abu Dhabi on Sunday, September 27, and held talks with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Three senior Israeli officials told Reuters the meeting lasted six hours and focused on Iran.

Ynet then reported that officials from Saudi Arabia and some other countries joined a wider meeting after those talks. A senior Saudi official flatly rejected this. "No official meetings. No talks. Nothing whatsoever. Our stance on Israel remains unchanged," the official told AFP. Jordan also denied taking part, and Ynet later issued a correction saying it could not confirm that the meeting took place.

US President Donald Trump has been pushing Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords, the US brokered deals under which the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco opened ties with Israel in 2020. The kingdom has refused so far. It has taken some practical steps, such as lifting its ban on Israeli flights crossing its airspace in July 2022. In August 2023, a plane carrying Israeli passengers made an emergency landing in Jeddah, and Netanyahu publicly thanked the Saudi authorities for their warm treatment.

Investigations and suspended flights

Flydubai has temporarily stopped all flights to and from Israel's Ben Gurion Airport, after Israel's Shin Bet security agency advised a pause. The airline said the reasons behind the attack are still unknown and asked everyone to avoid early speculation.

Several investigations are now under way. Saudi Arabia's National Transport Safety Centre is looking into the emergency landing, and the UAE has opened its own formal probe. Netanyahu told CNN that Israel would join the investigation and be allowed to question the Omani pilot along with the UAE. He told CBS that the motive, including whether it was an act of terrorism, was still being determined, and that he expected the suspect to be moved to Dubai soon. Trump, after speaking to Netanyahu, said the co-pilot was either a terrorist or a mentally unstable person.

A big question is how the co-pilot was put on an Israel route at all, since Oman has no diplomatic ties with Israel. Israeli media reported that he joined flydubai less than a year ago. Israeli Transport Minister Miri Regev has asked for a check on whether the aviation agreement between Israel and the UAE was broken, and Israel says it will tighten security checks on pilots who fly into the country.

What it means for Pakistan

Pakistan, like Saudi Arabia, has no diplomatic relations with Israel, and its official position is that it will not recognise Israel until an independent Palestinian state is created. Saudi Arabia's refusal, even in an emergency, shows that the kingdom is not quietly changing its policy despite strong pressure from Washington. This matters for Islamabad, which signed a Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement with Riyadh in September 2025 and keeps its own Israel policy closely tied to the Palestinian question.

For ordinary Pakistanis, flydubai is a well known low cost airline that connects several Pakistani cities with Dubai and onward routes. The current suspension covers only flights to and from Israel, so travel between Pakistan and the UAE is not affected. The co-pilot remains in Saudi custody for now, and flydubai has not said when its Israel flights will restart.