A major airline incident made major news. A Flydubai aircraft with 174 passengers headed from Abu Dhabi (UAE) to Tel Aviv (Israel) veered significantly off course and eventually went dark. For a while the plane’s location and condition was unknown, before finally reappearing on radar and landing safely at an airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

What occurred was harrowing, as one of the pilots boarded with either a knife or perhaps a small ax, apparently with the intent of killing the co-pilot and crashing the plane, filled primarily with Israelis. The jury is out on who planned and directed this attack, but I’ve got a good guess!

Despite being severely stabbed, the co-pilot managed to open the cockpit door, enabling at least 3 brave Israelis to storm the cockpit, restrain the terrorist pilot, and pull the controls to level the swiftly descending aircraft. On board was a British pilot who took control of the aircraft and heroically landed it. Meanwhile, the terrorist pilot had to be restrained for almost an hour until the plane landed, and an organized group of Israelis assigned two men to guard each flight attendant in case they were also in on the plot. Israeli fighter jets were scrambled and eventually escorted another aircraft, carrying the Tel Aviv passengers to their destination.

Folks, we live in a world quickly becoming the playground of radical jihadists. While the real action seems to take place in the Middle East, it will come to a city near you if the world fails to wake from its slumber and deal with the matter. (BTW – voting matters, and you get exactly who you elect. For example, according to a message on Amit Segal’s Telegram on 9/30/2026, Mamdani condemns the illegal entry of Israelis into Saudi Arabia. In a highjacked aircraft no less! What nonsense.)

Sadly, since their rebirth as a nation in 1948, Israel failed to deal forcefully with radical Islam as well…until October 7, 2023. Now, it seems the Israelis are the only ones putting up the proper defense against such madness.

This airline incident is an example. Amit Segal reported on it from a Jewish perspective and it is worth reading.

For the first time in over 20 years, someone has tried to hijack a plane bound for Israel. Miraculously, the attacker, an Omani pilot, was overpowered before he could complete his mission. 

The entire region held its breath as the morning Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv sent an emergency signal, flashed the hijack code and appeared to veer off course over Saudi airspace. The region then exhaled, almost with a chuckle, when early reports blamed a scuffle between the two pilots. 

That laughter quickly died as security assessments and passenger testimony revealed that the co-pilot had repeatedly stabbed the captain. The terrorist then seized the controls and pointed the plane toward the ground, dropping almost 20,000 feet in just over a minute, until several crew members and passengers forced their way through the cockpit door and subdued him. [It was later learned that the injured co-pilot had the wherewithal to open the cockpit door.] Many were injured in the process. 

The plane made an emergency landing in Tabuk, in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where the passengers are now waiting for Israel to bring them home. [They are now safely home, thanks to an escort by Israeli fighter jets.] 

The assailant’s specific motive and affiliation are still unconfirmed, but Israel is treating the incident as terrorism. Between 1968 and 1976, Palestinian groups attempted or carried out 16 hijackings, and roughly as many attacks on other aviation targets, hitting El Al offices and passengers at the airports in Athens, Brussels, Istanbul and Rome. An El Al jet flying the Israeli flag made an unmistakable national symbol. The defining image of the era was an isolated plane sitting on a foreign tarmac, its window shades drawn, surrounded by police and soldiers, while hostage negotiations dragged on for days. The aim was to isolate Israel, reach a global audience and strike fear into Israelis, and it succeeded on all three counts. 

The era’s most dramatic hijacking, and effectively its last against Israel, came in 1976. Palestinian and German terrorists seized an Air France flight from Tel Aviv and landed it in Entebbe, under the protection of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. The daring rescue that followed has been adapted into several films and has become a canonical moment in Israeli culture. In practical terms, it gave the West an alternative to capitulation, which it had been ignominiously practicing for years, and a credible threat of rescue made hijacking a far less attractive gamble. 

But the biggest factor in ending the scourge was also the most mundane. After the 1972 massacre at Lod Airport, in which 26 people were killed, the Shin Bet turned Israel’s international airport into a fortress, with metal detectors, X-ray machines, surveillance cameras, a pressure chamber for checked luggage, a vehicle checkpoint at the entrance and armed guards. Israeli standards soon became the global norm, and terrorists came to realize that the risk involved in hijacking planes was greater than the chances of success. At least where Israel was concerned, they gave up the method altogether. 

But it was not the avenging fist of the Israeli Air Force nor a heroic rescue by special forces that foiled today’s threat. It was the courage of everyday Israelis. There was a very real and tragic possibility that I would be writing an entirely different article today. With the captain barely hanging on to life, a damaged steering system and a damaged wing, it was only by the bravery of a handful of passengers and crew that almost 180 lives were saved. 

Today, on the fifth day of Sukkot, we will recite the words of Hallel with extra fervor: “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” 

~Amit Segal, Telegram, 9/30/2026

So, the next time you fly to Israel and complain about their stringent security, remember the lengths Israel goes to protect their own citizens, as well as those visiting their land. Other nations could learn from it. Also, the next time you want to badmouth Israelis, remember the bravery and capability of a society steeped in military training, where all citizens, male and female, serve in the IDF and know how to organize and handle themselves in stressful situations.

Indeed, Israel witnessed a Sukkot miracle in this new year, 5787 (on the Hebrew calendar, dated from creation). More news is coming out that simply reinforces the miraculous hand of God upon the passengers aboard that plane! May we see it for what it is!