The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered a case to investigate last month’s cockpit attack on Captain Smit Machchhar aboard a flydubai flight, officials said on Saturday, 10 October 2026.
Quick Facts
| Flight | flydubai FZ1073, Dubai to Tel Aviv |
| Date of attack | 30 September 2026 |
| People on board | 174 |
| NIA case registered | 9 October 2026 |
| Laws invoked | Anti-Hijacking Act, 2016; Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 |
What Happened on the Flight
Machchhar, an Indian national and the captain of the flight, was stabbed and seriously injured by his co-pilot in the cockpit.
Officials, citing the NIA’s first information report, said the attack was “an apparent attempt to hijack or cause it to crash”.
According to flight-tracking data reported by Al Jazeera, the aircraft dropped more than 17,000 feet in about two minutes. Passengers and crew reportedly overpowered the co-pilot. Two reserve pilots on board landed the jet safely at Tabuk in Saudi Arabia.
What the UAE Has Said
Prosecutors in the United Arab Emirates said on 9 October that the 29-year-old co-pilot intended to crash the aircraft at Tel Aviv’s airport. They said he confessed and claimed to have acted alone. He has not been officially named. These are the prosecution’s allegations.
Why India Is Investigating
The victim is an Indian citizen, and the case has been registered under India’s anti-hijacking and anti-terrorism laws. The NIA is India’s central counter-terrorism agency.
The Captain
Machchhar was treated in Saudi Arabia and then transferred to Abu Dhabi. He met the Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, on 3 October.
Sources: The Hindu, Al Jazeera (9–10 October 2026).
Featured image: A Flydubai Boeing 737 in 2021 (file photo, not the aircraft involved). Photo by Md Shaifuzzaman Ayon, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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