FlyDubai pilot who tried to crash plane identified as Omani

Alisa Odenheimer, Paul Wallace and Kateryna Kadabashy, Bloomberg News on Oct 1, 2026

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The FlyDubai pilot who tried to crash the Boeing Co. 737 carrying 174 passengers mainly from Israel was Omani, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, raising questions how he gained permission to fly despite a strict security screening process.

The revelation about the co-pilot’s nationality will put pressure on the airline and security forces to explain how he ended up on the Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight despite Oman and Israel having no diplomatic relations, restricting the access of their citizens to each other’s countries.

Netanyahu made the comments in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, a day after the near-catastrophe took place. The prime minister said the attacker underwent radical Islamist indoctrination, but cautioned it was too early to say if he had any links with Iran.

“We have constraints regarding pilots from countries that don’t have diplomatic relations,” Netanyahu said in the interview. “So obviously, he was able to go through that. So there’s a loophole there, how to make sure that we screen pilots in advance.”

President Donald Trump said the United States is looking into whether the FlyDubai pilot has ties to Iran.

“We’re working on it right now,” Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn on Thursday. “I would say the answer, based on what I’m hearing, is yes, but we’re working on it right now.”

Neither the airline nor the United Arab Emirates government has announced the nationality or identity of the pilot. Netanyahu previously identified the other pilot, who was stabbed and gravely injured, as Indian.

Oman’s government didn’t immediately respond to a Bloomberg request for comment.

Subsidized flights

Israel will immediately allocate funds to help subsidize repatriation flights for Israelis who are stranded in Dubai and in Asia due to the FlyDubai incident and subsequent suspension of the airline’s flights to Tel Aviv, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said. He estimated that there are about 10,000 Israelis waiting to return and pledged to help bring them home.

“After witnessing the great miracle that occurred on the flight, alongside the heroism of the passengers who, with supreme valor, averted a terrible disaster, our duty as a state is now to ensure that all our brethren can reach their homeland quickly and safely. The Ministry of Finance is making immediate preparations for this. We won’t leave a single Israeli behind!” Smotrich said, according to a statement released by his office.

Thousands of Israelis are traveling this month due to the Jewish holiday season. This week in particular, schools and most government offices are closed for the Sukkot, or Feast of Tabernacles, holiday, presenting an especially inviting time for trips abroad.

The UAE currently serves as a convenient hub for Israelis traveling to the Far East. Emirates informed travelers on Wednesday that its codeshare operations with FlyDubai to and from Tel Aviv are suspended immediately, and passengers whose final destination is Tel Aviv will not be accepted for travel at the point of origin, thus stranding Israeli passengers who had booked return flights with the airline.

The FlyDubai co-pilot and the pilot he attacked were flown to Abu Dhabi on Thursday morning, escorted by a UAE security team, the state Saudi Press Agency reported, citing an Interior Ministry source.

Doron Spielman, Netanyahu’s spokesman, said Israel will be part of the investigation and is conducting its own inquiry.

“We’re right now vetting all the pilots that are flying into Israel,” Spielman said.

Yossi Shelley, Israel’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, was asked in a Kan radio interview on Thursday about the possible oversights that led to the FlyDubai incident.

“This was certainly an aberration,” Shelley said. “Something didn’t work here. The outcome is terrible. It could have been far more terrible. This has to be checked — why a pilot with such citizenship came out here?”

FlyDubai said in response to queries that “the circumstances surrounding the incident are still being investigated,” and that it had no additional comment.

According to earlier comments by Netanyahu, the attacker stabbed or hit the other pilot with an ax before being overwhelmed by passengers who rushed to the scene of the carnage. The aircraft eventually made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

The UAE attorney-general has ordered the creation of an investigation team. The group will look into the incident to examine the circumstances and motives behind the flight-deck altercation, and to verify whether it was linked to any terrorist activity, according to a statement.

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With assistance from Dan Williams and Josh Wingrove.

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