TEL AVIV (VINnews) – One of the key unanswered questions in the investigation into the Flydubai cockpit attack is how the co-pilot obtained the weapon used to stab the captain.
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Israeli officials have said the co-pilot attacked the captain during the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv before passengers intervened and helped subdue him. But authorities have not publicly established what weapon was used or how it came into his possession.
Reuters reported Wednesday that it could not independently determine whether the weapon was a knife or another object. Passengers aboard the flight said they saw a man holding a knife while one of the pilots was bleeding.
A pilot who works in the region but not for Flydubai told Reuters that pilots could potentially have access to metal knives associated with meal service. The pilot also pointed to another possibility: the emergency crash axe that is normally available in an aircraft cockpit.
Following the terrifying stabbing incident on board Flydubai flight 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, it raises many questions about aviation security, including how could a pocket knife be brought on board a plane?@SimonCalder explains how this Flydubai incident could lead to… pic.twitter.com/9weBbvJWXD
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) September 30, 2026
That distinction is significant because the co-pilot was a member of the flight crew and would not have boarded the aircraft as an ordinary passenger.
Two Middle East-based pilots who spoke to Reuters said pilots are subject to security screening and should not be able to bring weapons such as knives or guns onto an aircraft. Aviation security experts said airlines are responsible for properly vetting their cockpit crews under applicable national and international requirements.
The incident has prompted Israel to examine security procedures for pilots flying into the country, including pilots working for foreign airlines. A spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel plans to increase security checks and ensure that authorities know the identities of pilots operating flights into Israel.
Flydubai has cautioned against premature speculation, saying that much about the incident remains unclear.
The airline has not publicly explained how the weapon was obtained, and investigators have not established whether the object was a knife from the aircraft’s service equipment, an emergency axe or another weapon.
The question is likely to become an important part of the investigation as authorities examine how the co-pilot was able to attack the captain inside the cockpit and whether existing crew-security procedures were followed.
The question of how the Omani pilot brought a knife onboard the flight from Dubai, also brings to mind how the lax security at Logan Airport and Newark Airport, permitted the 9/11 hijackers to board their flights with box cutters. It is incredible that at the time, those deadly tools, were permitted to be carried inside the aircraft.
Although there have been reports which listed five other incidents (a Japanese plane, German plane, Egyptian plane, Indonesian plane, and one other), where suicidal pilots deliberately crashed commercial aircraft, and killed all of the passengers, there was no mention of another successful ending, preventing the deliberate crashing of a cargo DC-10 aircraft. On April 7, 1994, the Flight Engineer onboard Federal Express Flight 702, en route from Memphis to San Jose, deliberately attacked the pilot, co-pilot, and a relief crew member with hammers and a spear. He tried to kill all of them, and crash the plane to make it look like an accident, so his family could collect his life insurance. He felt that as an African-American, he was discriminated against by Federal Express, for a promotion. It was a miracle (as in this attempted hijacking out of Dubai), that the flight crew, despite being seriously injured, was able to subdue that psycho and safely land the plane. The defendant was convicted of attempted air piracy and attempted murder, and was sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of parole.
Every international flight must have armed agent
The interviewees from the plane described him using an axe.
Many commercial airplanes have a emergency ax to be used in case if there’s a crash and they have to break out or get to stuff