Dubai/Jerusalem, Sep 30: Indian Captain Smit Machchhar of a Dubai-Tel Aviv Flydubai flight fought off his co-pilot who allegedly attempted to crash the aircraft, which had to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

Hailing Machchhar as a “true hero”, Netanyahu said that “despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster.”

“He saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals. I wish Captain Machchhar a speedy and full recovery. He is a true hero,” the prime minister said.

“My salute to the Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his extraordinary bravery,” he said.

Netanyahu earlier said one of the pilots stabbed the other and apparently attempted to crash the aircraft with passengers on board.

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana said the people of Israel are praying for Captain Machchhar, the brave Indian pilot who fought off his co-pilot’s mid-air attack to save the Israeli passengers aboard flydubai flight FZ1073.

“In a moment of terror, he showed extraordinary courage. Today, our hearts are with him and his family,” he said in a post on X.

In videos circulated on social media, the pilot can be seen drenched in blood, wearing an oxygen mask and lying on his back in the galley of the aircraft.

In his earlier statement, Netanyahu said an Israeli passenger told him that the aircraft went into a spin and began descending, after which the passenger and a crew member managed to break into the cockpit and, together, they overpowered the pilot who had carried out the stabbing while he was attempting to sabotage the aircraft’s systems.

According to Netanyahu, another crew member then entered the cockpit and helped stabilise the aircraft.

“I salute these heroes who demonstrated extraordinary resourcefulness and courage. They saved many lives and prevented a major disaster,” he said.

The aircraft landed safely at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia and all passengers were out of danger, said Netanyahu, who met his security chiefs to discuss the situation.

He also said the pilot who carried out the stabbing had been arrested and was being questioned by Saudi authorities.

The Flydubai flight FZ1073, travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv, had transmitted emergency signals and made a sharp descent before diverting to Prince Sultan Bin Abdel Aziz Airport in Tabuk.

The flight was carrying 174 passengers, including 27 children.

Flydubai confirmed that the aircraft had experienced an in-flight “altercation” and landed safely in Tabuk. “The aircraft was successfully secured by on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight, who diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk Airport (TUU). All passengers and crew are safe and accounted for,” it said.

The airline said it was cooperating with the relevant authorities and that all passengers were safe.

“At this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation. We urge all parties to refrain from premature speculation while authorities gather the facts,” the airline said.

Tabuk airport authorities said the captain and first officer sustained injuries and were immediately transferred to a hospital for medical care. They added that passengers were provided with the necessary assistance at the terminal.

Israeli authorities feared a possible hijacking and scrambled Israeli Air Force fighter jets. The incident remains under investigation.

Hours later, the passengers returned to Tel Aviv on a FlyDubai rescue flight.

Several defence officials insisted on sending an Israeli rescue aircraft to bring the passengers to Israel. However, Saudi authorities denied permission for an Israeli rescue aircraft, The Jerusalem Post reported.

At Ben Gurion International Airport, Prime Minister Netanyahu met a passenger, who broke into the cockpit on the flight and overpowered the attacker.

The passengers told Netanyahu that the captain managed to open the cockpit door before collapsing after being stabbed. Then they entered and took over the hijacker before he could crash the plane.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the incident aboard the plane “was a jihadist terrorist attack attempt, which was thwarted only thanks to the bravery of several Israeli passengers who broke into the cockpit and overpowered the terrorist”.

Video clips circulated by Israeli media show passengers aboard the aircraft moving towards the front of the plane, while others can be heard shouting and asking what was happening.

The seat layout and design are consistent with a Flydubai Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, according to BBC Verify.

Flight-tracking data analysed by BBC Verify showed the aircraft cruising at about 34,000 feet before descending more than 17,000 feet in less than two minutes. The aircraft subsequently transmitted emergency signals, including a code indicating possible unlawful interference.

In a video circulated on Israeli social media, a man, who has blood on his face, is filming himself while saying, “We’re here – the plane – we’ve just taken control of the terrorists. We’re about to land. Anyone who hears me: we need help. We’re landing in Tabuk.”

Zvika Manes, a passenger who said he helped subdue the alleged attacker, told Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist that his wife heard shouting and screams near the cockpit before he and others intervened. “I’m covered in blood. It was insane,” he said, according to Ynet.

Another passenger, Dalia Shpigel, told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that there were “terrible screams throughout the plane” before “three to five guys burst into the cockpit” and subdued the attacker.

Daniel, an Israeli passenger, said two off-duty pilots who were on the plane took control of the flight after the attacker was overpowered.

“The spinning stopped. It took some — I don’t know, it felt like an eternity, but I think it was two minutes, at least two or three minutes, during which the plane was simply diving and spinning like crazy,” Daniel was quoted as saying by The Times of Israel.

“It felt like, that’s it. It’s over. September 11 is happening again.”

Noa Shpigel, a journalist with the Haaretz newspaper, told the BBC that her 74-year-old mother was travelling on the Flydubai flight from Kathmandu via Dubai to Israel.

After learning about the incident, Shpigel spoke to her mother, who said passengers realised something was wrong when the aircraft began “to jump in the air” and then “dive down”.

She said they quickly understood that something was very wrong in the cockpit. Several young Israeli men sitting at the front of the aircraft then entered the cockpit and took control, Shpigel told the BBC.

Israeli Opposition leader Yair Lapid said a warning about increased terrorist activity abroad, which he was briefed about before the Flydubai incident, had nothing to do with the events aboard the aircraft.

“The warning about activity abroad is specific, has been in place for more than two years, and has nothing to do with planes or anything resembling what happened this morning,” Lapid said in a post on X.

He said nothing resembling the incident was discussed during a security briefing with Netanyahu on Tuesday.

“Nothing that even resembles this morning’s plane incident appeared in last night’s security update with the Prime Minister. Not similar, not reminiscent, not even hinted at,” Lapid said.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demanded action against “whoever tried to crash a plane and murder 180 Israelis.”

Baghdad, Sep 30: The US military announced Wednesday that it completed the withdrawal of all American troops from Iraq, ending a 12-year mission to fight the Islamic State group and prompting President Donald Trump to hail the conclusion of “a very expensive excursion into Hell.”

The last US troops left an air base in northern Iraq under a deal between Baghdad and Washington.

Trump described the withdrawal by a Sept. 30 deadline as “orderly” and said in a social media post: “It has been a long time, with very bad decision-making that got us involved in this quagmire in the first place, but soon, that will be part of History.” He said the shift was a victory for the US, Iraq and a sign of victory over the Islamic State group.

The withdrawal, agreed on two years ago, comes against the backdrop of the ongoing war between the United States and Iran that has also sometimes spilled over into Iraq, with Iran-backed militias firing on US troops and the US striking the groups’ strongholds.

Trump’s comments came as own decision earlier this year to launch the war with Iran has been compared to the Iraq war for its undefined mission as it nears its seventh month.

In recent years, Washington has appeared to seek to shift its focus from the Middle East toward Asia, but that shift has been inconsistent, with the Pentagon alternating between reducing its Mideast presence and then finding itself engaging in new conflicts — including the ongoing war in Iran.

Baghdad touted the end of the US mission as a sign of the country’s increasing strength and sovereignty.

The withdrawal was also celebrated by Iran-backed groups but raised concerns among some other Iraqis, particularly in the Kurdish region, where many fear a resurgence of the Islamic State group as well as more attacks by Iran-linked groups, possibly emboldened by the departure of US forces.

Meanwhile, questions loom around the future of the Iraqi militias, which the Baghdad government has sought to disarm, with little success so far.

A new phase in Iraq after decades of US involvement

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement that US troops and equipment had completed an “orderly departure” from the air base in Irbil, in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

“This milestone reflects the success of a 12-year campaign that defeated ISIS as an organised military threat in Iraq and across the region,” he said. “It also marks a transition from a wartime coalition mission to an Iraqi-led security effort supported by a more normal bilateral security relationship.”

He added that the US military “will continue to provide targeted training and intelligence support to our Iraqi partners.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi presided over the handover ceremony and described the US withdrawal as the beginning of a “new phase, one defined by Iraq’s sovereignty, the strength of its institutions, the readiness of its forces, the unity of its decision-making, and balanced partnerships with its friends.”

He said Iraqi security forces will continue the fight against IS and the government will ensure that non-state groups no longer hold weapons.

US troops invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein. They departed in 2011, but three years later, Iraqi authorities invited a smaller US-led mission to fight the Islamic State group, which had rampaged across Iraq, seizing large swaths of territory.

With the extremist group reduced to scattered sleeper cells, Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind the mission down.

US troops pulled out of bases in most areas of Iraq last year but maintained a small presence of hundreds of troops in the semiautonomous northern Kurdish region. Bases there have regularly come under attack since the US and Israel launched their war against Iran on Feb. 28. Iran-backed Iraqi militias also have coordinated with Yemen’s Houthi rebels to attack Saudi Arabia.

The future of militias remains unclear

The Iraqi government initially linked the Sept. 30 deadline for US withdrawal to the disarmament of non-state armed groups by that date.

While a handful of less-influential militias have agreed to turn over their weapons, powerful groups close to Iran rejected the prospect or set conditions for disarming that the government would be unlikely to meet.

Al-Zaidi has since walked back the deadline. He told The New York Times earlier this month that the deadline for militia disarmament has been pushed to June 2027.

The effects of the US withdrawal may not be immediately visible, particularly since the US military presence had already been scaled down. But officials in Iraq’s Kurdish region have expressed anxiety about the departure and particularly about the removal of US air defence systems.

The Kurdish regional government’s Peshmerga Ministry said the Kurdish region had faced more than 1,000 drone and ballistic-missile attacks during the recent US-Iran conflict.

“The departure of the United States from the Kurdistan Region under these complex regional circumstances, without the provision of a defence system, is a matter of concern,” the statement said.

Iran-allied groups in Iraq, meanwhile, have celebrated the US withdrawal.

“The expulsion of the occupation forces, defeated, from the land of Iraq is the beginning of full sovereignty,” Abu Mujahid al-Assaf, a security official with the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, said in a statement.

He added a warning to al-Zaidi and his government not to carry out American plans, threatening that “any government that does not work for the benefit of the people will be overthrown by all means.”

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias, said in a statement that negotiations with the government over the regulation of weapons have not resulted in an agreement and that it was “not bound by any timeline or agreement” announced by the government or political entity. The group said it is open to “any dialogue that guarantees Iraq’s sovereignty and dignity.” (AP)