Trump credits Israeli plumber after Netanyahu call on flydubai FZ1073

US President Donald Trump said on September 30, 2026 that he had held a long conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the incident aboard a flydubai flight carrying Israeli passengers, and that the copilot appeared to have been either a terrorist or mentally unstable. The Times of Israel reported that Trump made the remarks to reporters in the Oval Office, describing the suspect as "perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack-job."

Trump also praised an Israeli passenger whom he described as a plumber with no flying experience. According to remarks relayed by Axios correspondent Barak Ravid and published by N12, Trump said the man was strong, heard the shouting, pulled the copilot out of his seat, took hold of the controls and steadied the aircraft before it could crash. Trump repeatedly qualified the account, saying "I don't know if it's true" and that this was what Netanyahu had told him.

What Trump said happened on board

In the version Trump gave, the copilot attacked the flight's pilot and the plane went into a dive. Ynet reported that Trump said the copilot stabbed the pilot, and that the plumber managed to recover the aircraft because he had watched the television documentary series known in Hebrew as "Te'ufa BeHakira", a programme about aviation accident investigations. Ynet quoted Trump calling it a "crazy show" and saying the story was "amazing".

Trump said he had heard the account from Netanyahu, whom he referred to by his nickname Bibi, and from a couple of other people, according to The Times of Israel. He added that those people believed the copilot had meant to bring the plane down, but that they did not have firm information on this. The N12 report of his remarks similarly quoted him saying it was not yet known exactly what the copilot intended to do.

The flight and the people involved

The flight was flydubai FZ1073, travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv, according to photo captions in The Times of Israel's live coverage. flydubai is an airline based in the United Arab Emirates. The Times of Israel described the event as an apparent attempted hijacking and an alleged attempt to crash a plane full of Israelis.

The same coverage identified the flight's captain as Smit Machchhar and said the copilot was subdued after stabbing him. It named Assaf Rajwan as a passenger who helped subdue the copilot, and published a photograph of him at Ben Gurion Airport, Israel's main international airport near Tel Aviv. Other images showed passengers from the flight meeting relatives at the airport after landing. The reports do not state whether Rajwan is the plumber Trump described.

How the remarks reached Israeli media

Trump's comments were first circulated in Hebrew by Barak Ravid, a correspondent for the US news site Axios who also reports for N12, the news arm of Israel's Channel 12. Ynet, the website of the Yedioth Ahronoth group, and The Jerusalem Post also carried the remarks. The Jerusalem Post's headline quoted Trump as saying he spoke to Netanyahu at length and that the copilot may have been a terrorist.

The Times of Israel's translation of Trump's description of the plumber's actions is worded differently from the Hebrew reports. It said the plumber levelled out the plane after it began a nosedive, while N12's rendering said he moved the copilot from his seat before taking the controls. These are consistent in substance but come from the same set of remarks, not from separate accounts of the flight.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports cites an investigating authority, the airline or Israeli officials confirming the account Trump gave. Trump himself said he did not know whether it was true. The reports do not identify the copilot by name, give his nationality, or say what happened to him after the flight landed. They do not state the motive, which Trump said remained unknown, and they do not describe the condition of the captain after the stabbing.

The reports also do not independently confirm that a passenger flew or steadied the aircraft, that the passenger is a plumber, or what role television viewing played. Those details come only from Trump's retelling of what he said Netanyahu and others told him. The reports do not say whether Netanyahu's office has commented on the call.