Suicide by plane or terrorism? Speculation over motive in flight 1073 attack

At around 9:30 AM local time on Wednesday, Tali Manes was on a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv when she heard a series of heavy blows against the cockpit door. As an Israeli bank executive, she immediately alerted a nearby flight attendant, saying, "Something is happening in there!" Moments later, the co-pilot opened the cockpit door, revealing a chaotic scene: blood spattered across the cockpit walls and a brutal struggle between the injured pilot and the co-pilot, who was armed with a sharp weapon.

Inside the cockpit, the pilot was badly injured, and there was no one at the controls of the Boeing 737. Manes shouted, "He’s stabbing the pilot, he’s stabbing the pilot, come help!" Amidst the chaos, the plane entered a steep dive, losing 16,000 feet of altitude in about a minute. Most of the 182 passengers screamed and prayed, while a small group rushed to the cockpit to overpower the co-pilot. A plumber on board used techniques seen in documentaries to pull the aircraft out of its dive. Two off-duty pilots, both non-Israeli passengers, took control of the aircraft, guiding it to a safe landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, approximately 90 minutes later.