A person familiar with the investigation told NPR the Omani co-pilot attacked the captain with a crash axe midflight and tried to seize the controls of the Dubai to Tel Aviv flight, which was carrying 172 people. Flight data showed the plane descending more than 14,000 feet in under 30 seconds before passengers subdued the attacker and the plane diverted to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Both pilots survived and were transferred to the UAE for questioning.
Netanyahu announced a formal examination of security screening for foreign civil aviation crews, after officials traded blame over how an Omani pilot whose radical views had reportedly kept him out of pilot programs in Oman and Morocco ended up flying to Tel Aviv. Opponents have called the breach a failure of the prime minister’s government and demanded a wider investigation.
The election is weeks away, the first since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, and polls show a tight race. Analysts say the incident is unlikely to shift voting intentions, but it has put Netanyahu’s core security message and his rivals’ competence critique at the center of the campaign’s final stretch.