DHS Sec. Mullin says no threat to US amid Flydubai flight incident

 

DHS Sec. Mullin says no threat to US amid Flydubai flight incident

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Pilot may have sought to crash Israel-bound flight after stabbing other pilot, Netanyahu says

The Flydubai flight was diverted to Saudi Arabia after a struggle in the cockpit in what the Israeli PM called "a most serious security incident."

Updated 12:49 PM EDT, Wed September 30, 2026

FlyDubai flight to Israel diverted after a "violent incident" ...

2:38

Here's the latest

• Hijacking attempt: A pilot on the Israel-bound Flydubai flight diverted to Saudi Arabia stabbed the other pilot and appears to have tried to crash the plane, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. He said passengers and crew subdued the assailant, who has been arrested.

• Passengers’ fear: The incident caused the aircraft, traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv, to plummet 17,400 feet in less than two minutes, flight tracking data shows. One passenger told Israeli media there were moments she believed she was going to die.

• Repatriation flight: A replacement Flydubai flight carrying most of the stranded passengers just landed at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv. Saudi Arabia earlier rejected an Israeli request to send a military or civilian plane to bring passengers home.

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1 hr 12 min ago

“Someone had to be pushing hard on the controls,” aviation expert says

By Gianluca Mezzofiore and Billy Stockwell

A plane, carrying passengers who were on the Flydubai aircraft bound for Israel from the United Arab Emirates, arrives at the Ben Gurion International Airport, in Lod, Israel, on September 30. 

Ammar Awad/Reuters

Questions remain over exactly what happened in the cockpit of a diverted Israel-bound Flydubai flight which plummeted thousands of feet in minutes earlier today amid a suspected hijacking attempt.

An aviation expert told CNN the speed of the plunge was “many times the rate of a planned emergency descent, and the autopilot would never command it.”

Marco Chan, a senior lecturer in aviation operations at London’s Kingston University, said “someone had to be pushing hard on the controls,” likely resulting in a physical “tug-of-war” as the plane’s two flight control columns are mechanically linked.

“A body falling against a column can also produce large inputs,” he added.

The rate and gradient of the aircraft’s descent suggests the fall would “very likely have taken the aircraft beyond its maximum operating speed,” Chan said.

Investigators will likely explore the flight’s data recorder and cockpit voice recorder first, Chan said, which will show “each pilot’s control inputs, autopilot status, speeds and loads, and what was said on the flight deck.”

They will also interview the crew, the off-duty pilots and passengers, and look into how the cockpit door was opened, how the weapon came to be on board, and the first officer’s medical and training history, he said.

1 hr 20 min ago

Graphic video shows wounded pilots receiving aid from passengers

By Ivana Kottasová and Tal Shalev

Graphic video shows passengers helping wounded pilots on Flydubai flight

1:07

Video taken onboard the plane shows a gruesome scene as passengers try to help a seriously wounded pilot, while guarding another man nearby.

In the footage the injured pilot is seen lying on the floor of the aircraft, his pained face partially covered with a mask.

The man is seen clutching his torso with his bloodied hands. He seems in pain, but conscious. Several passengers are seen helping him and monitoring his vital signs.

Just next to him, guarded by several men, is another pilot — the man the flight’s passengers allege was the attacker. He too is injured, lying on his side, his white shirt soaked with blood around his stomach.

The video was taken aboard the diverted Flydubai flight in the aftermath of what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says may have been an attempted hijacking of the plane. The footage was shared on social media and verified by CNN.

“They attacked us … on this plane, they tried to murder the pilot and we took over the crew,” a man is heard as saying in the video.

1 hr 27 min ago

Flydubai passengers begin disembarking in Israel after diverted flight lands

By Dana Karni at Ben Gurion Airport, Israel

People disembark a Flydubai plane at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel on Wednesday. 

Erik Marmor/Getty Images

Passengers on the Flydubai flight have begun disembarking the diverted plane at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.

The passengers were accompanied by family members who waited for their arrival.

1 hr 40 min ago

Passengers’ families anxiously waited as the Flydubai plane landed in Israel

By Dana Karni at Ben Gurion Airport, Israel

Families of the passengers on the Flydubai plane anxiously waited in the terminal for their loved ones as the diverted flight landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.

A woman held balloons with the words “welcome” and “it’s so good to have you back home.”

They described a feeling of only partial relief while the aircraft was still flying from Saudi Arabia, where it was diverted after the struggle in the cockpit, and said that they can only exhale once they see their loved ones.

Some rushed inside after receiving phone calls that the plane had landed.

1 hr 22 min ago

DHS Sec. Mullin says no threat to US amid Flydubai flight incident

By Holmes Lybrand

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin attends a press conference in New York, on September 1. 

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said during a press conference Wednesday that there is no current threat against the United States following the attempted hijacking of a Flydubai flight.

“We take every incident like this very serious,” Mullin said, “and we continue to look at the procedures that we have in place and continue to make sure the American people are safe.”

Mullin said there were “no credible threats” to the US, adding that an investigation was ongoing and that information on the incident “is going to be coming out” in “due time.”

Attorney General Todd Blanche also said during Wednesday’s press

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