Netanyahu says it’s too early to determine motive in FlyDubai cockpit stabbing incident

September 30, 2026 / 8:28 PM EDT / CBS News

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated to CBS News Wednesday that the motive of the co-pilot accused of stabbing his fellow pilot on a passenger jet bound from Dubai to Tel Aviv is still unknown.

"I don't think it was a hijacking," Netanyahu told "CBS Evening News" anchor Tony Dokoupil.

"I think it looks like a suicide attempt simply because of what this hero Yaniv described when he went in," Netanyahu speculated, referring to Yaniv Hayoun, one of the passengers on the FlyDubai flight who has been credited with entering the cockpit and helping to subdue the attacker.

"This guy was trying to jam the equipment between the two flight seats, the pilot seats," Netanyahu said of the co-pilot. "He wasn't sitting in the pilot seat trying to stabilize the plane, he was trying to jam the equipment."

According to Israeli officials, on Wednesday morning local time, the FlyDubai jet was about two hours into its flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv when the co-pilot stabbed the captain.

Per data analyzed by CBS News partner network BBC News, the plane then plunged about 17,000 feet, climbed 5,000 feet, and then…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/