It has emerged that the Israeli military prepared to shoot down a Flydubai plane operating the Dubai-Tel Aviv flight on September 30 under an emergency protocol. On flight FZ1073, co-pilot Hemmam el-Hammami attacked Captain Smit Machchhar with an emergency axe. Israeli officials claim that el-Hammami intended to crash the plane into Ben Gurion Airport.
According to officials, the plane transmitted an emergency code, but when contact calls went unanswered, fighter jets were scrambled and the airspace was closed. It was stated that the jets prepared to intervene, entering Jordanian airspace if necessary. Under the protocol, only the prime minister can give the order to shoot down a plane. Tel Aviv recalled the jets upon realizing that the aircraft had turned toward Saudi Arabia.
Passengers on the plane, which lost 14 thousand feet of altitude in less than 30 seconds, intervened against the attacker; two reserve pilots landed the aircraft at Tabuk Airport. BAE Chief Prosecutor Hamed Seyf eş-Şamisi announced that the incident was an attempted act of terrorism. It is reported that Shin Bet officials also took part in the interrogation.
Why it matters
The incident reveals that Israel’s emergency protocol can operate to the point of targeting civilian passenger planes, and that the authority to open fire rests solely with the prime minister. This picture reopens debate over the risk that a communications breakdown or a misjudgment could end with a passenger plane being shot down. The jets’ readiness to enter Jordanian airspace if necessary shows the potential for a crisis on a single aircraft to turn into regional tension. The fact that passengers and reserve pilots averted the disaster, meanwhile, raises the question of how cockpit security and crew oversight should be ensured in civil aviation. Shin Bet’s participation in the interrogation and the BAE’s classification of the incident as an attempted act of terrorism leave open how the judicial process will unfold between the two countries.
Background
Israel is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 13 stories mentioning this name in the last 90 days, the most recent dated October 4, 2026.