Before Flydubai flight FZ1073 left Dubai for Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Israeli officials already had the names of everyone on board. The list of crew and passengers had been sent to them in advance, according to Israeli newspaper . Yet the Omani co-pilot, who is now accused of attacking Indian Captain Smit Machchhar and trying to crash the plane, was not flagged.

174 people were on the Boeing 737 Max, most of them Israelis. 7:05 am: The flight left Dubai on Wednesday, 30 September, and climbed to 34,000ft, according to Flightradar24. Just over two hours later: the plane began to descend and fell more than 17,000ft in about two minutes. 15,000ft: the height at which the plane levelled out, after passengers and crew overpowered the co-pilot. Code 7500: The transponder was set to this code, which signals unlawful interference.

2 reserve pilots on board took the controls and landed the jet at Tabuk, in northwest Saudi Arabia, at 9:45 am local time.

1 captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, was hurt in the cockpit and is now in hospital in Abu Dhabi.

EXPRESS INFOGENIE · FLYDUBAI FZ1073 The flight that plunged — and how passengers helped save it Flight data, the captain’s account and passenger footage, in nine chapters.

SCROLL TO BEGIN ↓ Flight-tracking data Animated reconstruction Passenger account Official statement Actual footage CHAPTER 1 Dubai: a routine flight Flydubai FZ1073, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 with 182 people on board, takes off for Tel Aviv. Watch the route rise into 3D: the height of the red line is the aircraft’s altitude.

3D FLIGHT PATH Based on AP and Flightradar24 data. Altitude is exaggerated; the point where the plunge began is approximate.

~34,000 ft Cruising altitude. Everything appears normal For more than two hours, nothing looks unusual. Then, in about four minutes, the altitude line collapses. PLAY THE FLIGHT ❙❙ PAUSE 0k ft 15k ft 34k ft 05:21 plunge 16,600 ft 15,000 ft held 06:58 Tabuk Source: AP, Flightradar24.

Climb and final descent are simplified. The plunge Tap each altitude to feel the drop. 34,000 25,000 16,600 21,725 ft Cruising. The descent begins.

In about 90 seconds the jet has lost more than half its cruising altitude. 17,400 ft lost 21,725 The aircraft climbs back up…15,000…then drops again, to the height it holds until landing.

19,000 ft below cruise The aircraft lost more than half its cruising altitude in the first descent. Source: AP, Flightradar24 Inside the cockpit Animated reconstruction based on passenger accounts, pilot testimony and published reporting. Not footage. CAPT CO-PILOT COCKPIT DOOR ①Attack ②Plunge ③One last push ④Rush in The co-pilot attacks Captain Machchhar.

The aircraft begins losing altitude. Machchhar, badly injured, reaches the cockpit door. The door opens. Passengers and crew intervene and restrain the attacker. LOCKED The cockpit door is locked. The captain is on the floor, injured. The aircraft is falling.

TAP TO OPEN THE DOOR Captain gets up DOOR OPENS Passengers enter Attacker restrained Reserve pilot takes control“I had fallen but I realised, understood, that the aircraft was going down. I thought, ‘Smit, you need to do something, you need to give one last push. The door is just there.’ I was in a lot of pain but I just opened it and the others came in.”

Capt. Smit Machchhar to PM Narendra Modi, as reported by The National CHAPTER 6 Passengers rush in Tap the cabin to see what passengers saw and heard.

1 · Passenger near the cockpit Hears shouting. People can be heard shouting “he tried to crash the plane” and ordering others to “sit down”.

2 · In the aisle Passengers and crew rush forward through the open cockpit door and restrain the attacker.

3 · Another passenger Repeated calls for a doctor ring out through the cabin. 4 · Dentist on board Dr Shota Musayev, an Israeli dentist, moves forward to give emergency care.

5 · Guarding the attacker Crew and passengers keep the co-pilot under guard. “No one will release him,” one says.

6 · Reserve pilots A passenger asks if there is “an additional pilot on the flight”. Two off-duty flydubai pilots take control.

Source: Channel 12 passenger footage, via The Times of Israel. Positions in the cabin are illustrative. ACTUAL PASSENGER FOOTAGE Not independently verified by The Indian Express.

7500: unlawful interference Pilots can signal trouble silently with a four-digit transponder code. Tap a code. 7700 GENERAL EMERGENCY 7500 UNLAWFUL INTERFERENCE / HIJACKING tells air traffic control the aircraft has a general emergency. signals unlawful interference, including a possible hijacking. FZ1073 held it for about an hour. Source: AP, Flightradar24 Tabuk: emergency landing Nearly four hours after take-off, FZ1073 lands in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

The passengers, most of them Israeli, later flew home on a separate plane. Source: AP The questions Why did the co-pilot attack? How was he vetted? Did he act alone? Why was an Omani pilot flying to Tel Aviv?

Confirmed / reported Still under investigation Captain Machchhar was seriously injured The co-pilot attacked him, the UAE says, with the cockpit crash axe The aircraft made an extreme descent The captain opened the cockpit door Passengers and crew intervened The flight landed at Tabuk The UAE is leading the investigation The UAE has described it as a “terrorist attack”

The co-pilot’s exact motive Whether he acted alone Any links to extremist groups How he was vetted before being hired How he came to fly the Tel Aviv route The full sequence inside the cockpit Source: AP, UAE authorities Sources: AP; Flightradar24; The National; Channel 12 via The Times of Israel; UAE authorities Express InfoGenIE Created by Aniruddha Dhar Now the questions are about who knew what before take-off, and why a man who had reportedly been barred from flying in his own country was in the cockpit at all. , quoting security sources, reported that Israel’s Transport Ministry and the Mossad were meant to check the crew list.

The Israel Tax Authority confirmed it received the list. The Transport Ministry would not say whether it went through it. Flydubai FZ1073: Who were mystery pilots who saved the plane after Smit Machchhar was attacked? What did Israel know before the flight?

According to Haaretz, Israeli government officials received the crew and passenger list ahead of the flight. Here is what is known and what is not:

What is confirmed Israeli officials received the list of crew and passengers before the flight. The Israel Tax Authority confirmed to that the list reached it. Security sources told the paper that the Transport Ministry and the Mossad were supposed to check the crew names. The Omani co-pilot was not flagged before the flight.

What has not been confirmed Whether the Transport Ministry went through the list. It declined to say. Whether the Mossad checked the crew names. The part of the Haaretz article seen here does not say. Whether any Israeli body raised a concern about the co-pilot before take-off. None has said so publicly. Whether Oman told Israel or any airline about its reported concerns over the co-pilot. reported that it is unclear. Who is the co-pilot, and what is known about his past?

Three people with knowledge of the matter, including a Gulf diplomat and a Western diplomat, told the news agency that the co-pilot is Hamam al-Hammami, an Omani national. They spoke without giving their names.

The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, said Omani authorities had barred him from flying in Oman over concerns about alleged extremist views. It is not clear what those views were, or whether Oman told other countries or airlines. CNN, citing a source and an Israeli official, said he was born in the UAE to a Syrian mother and spent several years there. CNN also quoted a regional diplomatic source who said he had been removed from flight training over similar concerns and moved to another role.

A LinkedIn profile with his name, seen by CNN, says he spent seven years at Oman Air and left in February 2025. It says he joined Royal Air Maroc in June 2025 and left in January 2026. Buckinghamshire New University has confirmed he finished a distance-learning course in aviation management there, and says he did no pilot training with it.

A Gulf diplomat told AP that investigators are trying to learn whether he acted as a “lone wolf” or had links to extremist groups. What happened on flight FZ1073?

According to Flightradar24, the plane left Dubai at 7:05 am on Wednesday and climbed to 34,000ft. A little over two hours later, it began to descend, and the data showed it fell more than 17,000ft in about two minutes before it climbed and dropped again.

Inside the cockpit, the co-pilot had attacked Indian pilot Machchhar. The UAE says he used the emergency crash axe, a tool kept in cockpits to cut through the aircraft in an emergency. Machchhar later told Prime Minister Narendra Modi, from a hospital in Abu Dhabi, that he was on the floor and could feel the plane dropping. He said he knew it was the “last chance to do something”. He told PM Modi he reached the door and opened it, and people came in.

Passengers and crew overpowered the co-pilot. The plane levelled out at about 15,000ft, and its transponder was set to code 7500, which signals unlawful interference. Two reserve pilots on board took the controls and landed the jet at Tabuk at 9:45 am local time. Saudi authorities said Captain Machchhar was taken to a hospital and then airlifted to Abu Dhabi after medical clearance. What is the UAE saying, and what happens next?

UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi said on Saturday that investigators found the co-pilot had begun what he called a “terrorist act.”He said the co-pilot attacked the captain with the crash axe and tried to take control of the aircraft. On Thursday, he had ordered investigators to check whether the incident was tied to terrorist activity or intent, or to planning or direction by others.

Flydubai attacker studied at British university, backed violence against women, Russia’s war Abu Dhabi is leading the case because the plane ised in the UAE and flies under its flag. Al-Shamsi said UAE law covers crimes on board even outside the country. Investigators are looking at the motive, any links to others, and physical and digital evidence. The UAE has not said what the motive was, or whether it thinks al-Hammami acted alone.

UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash said on X that the attack shows the region’s fight against extremism is not over. Flydubai flights to Israel remain suspended while the investigation is ongoing. Did Netanyahu miss a warning before 7 October as well?

The questions about the Flydubai crew list come at a bad time for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who faces a close election on 27 October. He is also dealing with a second security question, this one about the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023.

On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal published a report saying Netanyahu had been warned of that attack by Egypt’s intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel. According to the report, Kamel phoned the prime minister a few days before the attack. It adds to earlier claims that Kamel flew to Israel in September 2023 to tell security officials in person that Hamas was planning an attack. Netanyahu is alleged to have received warnings before 7 October, and the claim has followed him since.