A pilot, stabbed by the man in the seat beside him, made it to the cockpit door and got it open. That may be the reason everyone aboard flydubai Flight 1073 lived to talk about it.
Now the question is who else had a hand in that cockpit. President Trump made clear Thursday what happens if the answer turns out to be Iran.
“Oh, they’ll be hit very hard, don’t worry,” Trump told reporters.
“They know what happened. They’ll be hit very hard.”
He was careful to say the investigation isn’t finished.
He made less effort to hide where he thinks it’s headed.
Asked whether Iran was connected to the attack, he said, “I would say the answer, based on what I’m hearing, is yes, but we’re working on it right now.” Asked whether the Omani co-pilot could have been tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Trump said he “could’ve been.”
What happened on that Boeing 737, bound from Dubai to Tel Aviv, is the stuff of nightmares. Authorities say the co-pilot stabbed Capt. Smit Machchhar and tried to crash the plane.
The wounded captain opened the cockpit door. Passengers and crew rushed in and subdued the attacker. Other pilots on board helped bring the jet down safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Ordinary people boarded for an ordinary trip. When the moment came, they didn’t freeze.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that investigators had concluded the co-pilot went through “Islamist radical indoctrination” and appeared intent on bringing the plane down.
But he wasn’t ready to point at Tehran.
“I think it’s too early to say whether he had any connections with Iran or with anyone else,” Netanyahu told Fox News, adding that investigators expected to know more within days.
The United Arab Emirates, Israel, and Saudi Arabia are all investigating, including whether the co-pilot acted alone or had help. Reuters reported Thursday that investigators had not, at that point, found evidence tying Iran to the attack.
So the world waits on investigators in three capitals.
Tehran waits too, and it has been told what the answer could cost.
INVESTIGATION UNDERWAY: President Trump says "based on what he's hearing," the suspect behind the Flydubai attack was linked to Iran, but officials are still working to confirm the connection:
"I would say the answer, based on what I'm hearing, is yes. But we're working on it… pic.twitter.com/wGxzYw8S17
— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) October 2, 2026
