// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
'Hero' pilot stabbed by other pilot on Israel-bound plane, Israeli PM says
A pilot has been arrested after he stabbed the other pilot on a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv and "apparently tried to crash the plane", Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.
Passengers and crew overpowered the attacker and retook control of the Flydubai aircraft, landing it safely at an airport in Tabuk, northwestern Saudi Arabia, with more than 170 people on board.
The passengers, who were almost all Israeli, arrived later on Wednesday in Tel Aviv on a repatriation flight.
The stabbed pilot, named as Indian national Captain Smit Machchhar, has been taken to hospital but is reported to be in a stable condition. Netanyahu praised him as a "true hero" of "extraordinary bravery".
"Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster," Netanyahu wrote on X.
"He saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals."
The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia said Machchhar was in a stable condition in hospital.
Passengers arrived in Tel Aviv after their original flight was forced to land in Saudi Arabia
No motive for the incident has been given and the pilot was under investigation in Saudi Arabia, Netanyahu told Fox News on Wednesday night, before he was expected to be taken back to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the flight took off from.
Israel was "likely" to contribute to the investigation, the prime minister added.