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In a flash, Israeli dentist Dr. Shota Musaev went from being another passenger aboard FlyDubai Flight 1073 to a quick-thinking hero who helped save the life of the jet’s captain after he was attacked inside the cabin.

Musaev told ABC News on Thursday that when he and a group of passengers rushed to the cockpit after Capt. Smit Machchhar was attacked, he did not hesitate to do something.

“I think, how [can] I help this situation for all [the passengers for all plane. How I can help,” he told ABC News in an interview at his home in Tel Aviv. “And I see one pilot on the floor, with … blood.”

An unidentified co-pilot allegedly attacked Machchhar with a knife and took the plane into a nose dive in an attempt to crash the plane during its flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, Israeli officials said.

Another passenger, Yaniv Hayun was able to drag the suspect from the cockpit, took control of the plane and leveled it before a third pilot took over and flew the jet to Saudi Arabia, according to other passengers.

After the plane was leveled, Musaev said he saw the suspect and, with another passenger, tied the suspect’s hands up with headphones. The dentist said the suspect, who is now in custody , said little other than that he was from Oman and then told him “Kill me, kill me, please.”

“Once he had been subdued, caught, he didn’t resist,” Musaev said.

The dentist said he quickly turned his attention to Capt. Machchhar, who was bleeding from wounds to his head, neck and hands. Musaev said he began applying pressure to the wounds to stop the bleeding.

“Everything will be good,” Musaev said he told the pilot as he treated him. “He said to me, ‘Help me, please. Help me, please. I don’t want to die here.'”

The plane landed in Saudi Arabia, where the passengers were given medical treatment. The whole ordeal lasted around 40 minutes, Musaev said.

He said on Thursday he was still only understanding what they had been through. “Do you understand we were five to ten seconds from dying?” he said, choking up.

Captain Machchhar was treated at a local hospital in Saudi Arabia and has now been transferred to another hospital in the United Arab Emirates, according to the Indian consulate in Dubai.

“He was speaking openly, smiling and laughing, which was a great relief for us and, above all, for his family,” the Indian ambassador said in a statement Thursday.

The co-pilot is in custody in Abu Dhabi, according to officials from Saudi Arabia

Musaev said he hoped to reunite with the captain one day and express his gratitude for saving him and his fellow passengers despite his injuries.

“We’ll say thank you very much for all,” he said, adding that it was a collective effort in handling the situation.

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Passengers aboard FlyDubai Flight 1073 expressed fear, anger and ultimately elation after they survived what Israeli officials said was an attempted terror attack thousands of feet in the air on Wednesday.

After the passengers, many of whom were Israeli citizens, returned to Tel Aviv following the ordeal, many said they were still bewildered over what transpired during their flight from Dubai.

The plane’s first officer allegedly stabbed the plane’s captain and then made the plane descend rapidly, Israeli officials said, with passengers saying they felt the impact almost immediately.

“I guess usually there’s like some turbulence and you feel like whoa, but then it like evens out pretty quickly, and here it wasn’t like that,” Mika Bauman, who was aboard the flight told ABC News. “It was…like chaos screaming and just the crazy drop. Like you look at the ground and you’re like, ‘OK, I’m going that way right now.'”

Another passenger, who identified herself as Miram, told Israeli media that things got scary when passengers heard the screams coming from the cockpit and saw the bloody pilot.

“We felt like we were, like, going to crash. I was already screaming [the Jewish prayer] ‘Shema Israel’ and saying, ‘I can’t die, I’m my only daughter, I can’t do this to my mother,’ the woman added.

Israeli officials said that some of the passengers worked together to subdue the suspect while another flight crew member was able to take back the plane.

“Here was a crazy man with a knife who stabbed one of the pilots. We jumped and helped the pilot. Friends, everything is OK now, as you can see we are landing in Saudi Arabia, you can see I am fine. That’s it,” passenger Itzhak Liber said in a Hebrew language selfie video posted to Facebook after the incident was over.

The jet was diverted to Saudi Arabia, where the injured pilot was taken to the hospital and the passengers were repatriated later in the day. The unidentified suspect remains in custody and the investigation is ongoing.

When the repatriation flight landed in Tel Aviv later, the passengers arrived to a warm welcome.

“It feels amazing in that it’ll probably take me a little while to get on the plane again. But I’m honestly just thanking God that I’m here right now because it was so close to not happening based on the whole situation that we were just in,” Bauman said after she landed in Israel.

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has praised Capt. Smit Machchhar, the FlyDubai captain credited with intervening to help save the flight from disaster on Wednesday.

“Captain Smit Machchhar has shown the world the highest form of courage. Without fearing for his own life, he fought valiantly and prevented another 9/11 like attack from happening,” Modi said Thursday morning.

The Indian consulate in Dubai said India’s ambassador and consul general in the UAE met with Machchhar’s family members.

“They briefed the family about Captain Machchhar’s health & recovery, conveyed that the Embassy & Consulate are in touch with the UAE authorities, and assured the family of continued support,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in the United Arab Emirates have opened an investigation into the incident involving a FlyDubai flight that was diverted to Saudi Arabia after an altercation in the cockpit, the state news agency WAM reported Thursday.

The UAE attorney general ordered an investigation to establish the circumstances and motives behind the incident and “determine whether it was linked to any terrorist activity or prior planning,” WAM said.

UAE judicial authorities have jurisdiction over the investigation because the aircraft is registered in the UAE and operates under its flag, meaning offenses committed on board are subject to UAE law even when they occur outside the country, the statement said.

The flight took off at 7:05 a.m. local time from Dubai Wednesday, according to Flightradar24.

Tracking data showed the aircraft descended rapidly from 34,000 to 16,000 feet in three minutes.

About 10 minutes after the initial descent, the plane’s squawk code — used by aircraft to communicate with air traffic control — changed to “general emergency.” Seven minutes later, the squawk code changed again, indicating a hijacking or “unlawful interference.”

The aircraft then continued flying at an average altitude of about 15,000 feet until it landed in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, roughly an hour to an hour and a half after the rapid descent began and the emergency signals were sent.

FlyDubai confirmed that the flight “experienced an incident while en route” and landed in Tabuk.

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(LONDON) — A man who was among a group of passengers who subdued an attacker on a flight to Tel Aviv on Wednesday was welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he returned to Israel later in the evening.

The prime minister posted a video of meeting the passenger named Yaniv Hayun, who still had blood on his shirt from the encounter.

Yaniv and a group of other passengers aboard FlyDubai Flight 1073 were able to get into the cockpit after an unidentified pilot stabbed the co-pilot, Capt. Smit Machchhar and took control of the plane, Israeli officials said.

The suspect allegedly plummeted the plane in an attempt to crash it and kill everyone aboard, Israeli investigators said.

“And then there was a very sharp nosedive down, something that threw me to where the flight attendants stand in front of the cockpit, I flew sideways,” Yaniv said.

Yaniv said he placed the attacker in a chokehold and pulled him out. And then he quickly went for the plane’s controls and briefly flew the plane.

“And the plane started to level out a bit more, and then the (third) pilot told me he’s taking control from here,” he said.

The third pilot flew it to Saudi Arabia, where the plane landed and the passengers disembarked. Capt. Machchhar was being treated for his injuries and the suspect is in custody, officials said.

“I imagine if we entered the sky of the country it wouldn’t have been good,” Yaniv told the prime minister during their meeting.

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The U.S. military is expected to complete the total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq on Wednesday after a 12-year presence prompted by the war against the Islamic State militant group ISIS.

It will be the second time that the U.S. has withdrawn all of its military forces from Iraq.

In 2011, the U.S. pulled out after an eight-year presence that began with the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.  U.S. troops returned in 2014 as ISIS conquered wide swaths of Syria and northern Iraq and threatened the approaches to Baghdad.  The U.S. defeated ISIS militarily in 2019, but the continued U.S. presence was seen as a necessary one to prevent a resurgence of ISIS.

The withdrawal was negotiated with Iraq by the Biden administration in 2024, and the Trump administration has continued with the withdrawal plan that set Sept. 30 as the final pullout date. But the U.S. war with Iran has created a different regional situation for Iraq and the United States than when the deal was agreed upon.

Iraq and Iran have a shared Shiite cultural heritage and Iran has militarily assisted Shiite-militias inside Iraq. It remains a question how far Iran will be able to increase its presence and influence in Iraq and whether ISIS could become resurgent.

In recent years, there had been about 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq.

Throughout this year, the U.S. has been consolidating its positions throughout the country into northern Iraq, but has quietly been moving forces out of Erbil since the start of the war with Iran.  In recent months the reduction of forces proceeded along and there has been a very small U.S. presence in northern Iraq for quite some time.

Earlier this year the U.S. withdrew its forces from eastern Syria.  That was an unplanned withdrawal spurred by the new Syrian government’s push against the United States’ Syrian Kurdish partners.

With Wednesday’s expected withdrawal, the U.S. will once again end a military presence inside of Iraq that has stretched for more than two decades and was the scene of approximately 4,500 U.S. military deaths, the vast majority occurring between 2003-2011.

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The U.S. military is expected to complete the total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq on Wednesday after a 12-year presence prompted by the war against the Islamic State militant group ISIS.

It will be the second time that the U.S. has withdrawn all of its military forces from Iraq.

In 2011, the U.S. pulled out after an eight-year presence that began with the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.  U.S. troops returned in 2014 as ISIS conquered wide swaths of Syria and northern Iraq and threatened the approaches to Baghdad.  The U.S. defeated ISIS militarily in 2019, but the continued U.S. presence was seen as a necessary one to prevent a resurgence of ISIS.

The withdrawal was negotiated with Iraq by the Biden administration in 2024, and the Trump administration has continued with the withdrawal plan that set Sept. 30 as the final pullout date. But the U.S. war with Iran has created a different regional situation for Iraq and the United States than when the deal was agreed upon.

Iraq and Iran have a shared Shiite cultural heritage and Iran has militarily assisted Shiite-militias inside Iraq. It remains a question how far Iran will be able to increase its presence and influence in Iraq and whether ISIS could become resurgent.

In recent years, there had been about 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq.

Throughout this year, the U.S. has been consolidating its positions throughout the country into northern Iraq, but has quietly been moving forces out of Erbil since the start of the war with Iran.  In recent months the reduction of forces proceeded along and there has been a very small U.S. presence in northern Iraq for quite some time.

Earlier this year the U.S. withdrew its forces from eastern Syria.  That was an unplanned withdrawal spurred by the new Syrian government’s push against the United States’ Syrian Kurdish partners.

With Wednesday’s expected withdrawal, the U.S. will once again end a military presence inside of Iraq that has stretched for more than two decades and was the scene of approximately 4,500 U.S. military deaths, the vast majority occurring between 2003-2011.

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NATO military aircraft were scrambled in both Poland and Romania overnight into Wednesday morning, as Russia launched its latest deadly drone and missile attack on Ukraine, which authorities said set multiple fires in Kyiv and left a dense fog hanging over the capital.

Ukraine’s air force said that Russia launched 188 drones — 86 of which were jet-powered — and an unspecified number of ballistic and cruise missiles into the country overnight. The air force said that five missiles and 155 drones were destroyed or neutralized, with impacts reported across 18 locations. Kyiv was the focus of the attack, the air force said.

At least three people were killed and six others injured by strikes in Kyiv, according to updates posted to Telegram by Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported that the strikes caused multiple fires in the capital, noting the “dense fog” hanging over the city on Wednesday morning.

“This is a consequence of previous shelling. The remnants of smoke and soot have risen to the upper layers of the atmosphere, and a high-pressure system is temporarily pressing them down to the ground,” the SES wrote in a post to Telegram.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram that the overnight attacks were “intense” and focused on “the energy infrastructure of Kyiv and the surrounding region.”

Fourteen people were injured nationwide, Zelenskyy said, with attacks reported in the Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Rivne, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson and Cherkasy regions.

Zelenskyy thanked foreign partners who have recently committed new air defense support to Ukraine. “Every interceptor missile truly saves lives. And the closer we get to winter, the more of this protection we need. We must do everything to ensure that Russia’s strategy of ballistic and drone terror fails,” he wrote.

Beyond Ukraine’s western borders, the latest wave of Russian attacks prompted activity in Poland, Romania and Moldova.

In Moldova — which borders western Ukraine and is not a NATO member — the national police force said in a post to Facebook that a drone exploded and damaged a communications antenna in the Anenii Noi district in the center of the country. Police personnel were dispatched to the site to investigate the incident, police said.

Poland’s Armed Forces Operational Command said in a post to X on Wednesday morning that military aviation was active in response to Russian strikes in western Ukraine “using jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicles.”

Romania’s Defense Ministry said in a post to X that its forces “detected an aerial target maneuvering east of Izmail, on Ukrainian territory, near the river border with Romania.”

Two Spanish F-18 jets were scrambled “to monitor the situation,” the ministry added. “No incursions into national airspace were detected,” it said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its latest attacks on Ukraine were aimed at targets including “a communications center in Kyiv, energy infrastructure facilities in the Kyiv region that support military production and infrastructure in the port of Izmail.”

The Defense Ministry in Moscow said its forces also shot down at least 384 Ukrainian drones overnight.

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NATO military aircraft were scrambled in both Poland and Romania overnight into Wednesday morning, as Russia launched its latest deadly drone and missile attack on Ukraine, which authorities said set multiple fires in Kyiv and left a dense fog hanging over the capital.

Ukraine’s air force said that Russia launched 188 drones — 86 of which were jet-powered — and an unspecified number of ballistic and cruise missiles into the country overnight. The air force said that five missiles and 155 drones were destroyed or neutralized, with impacts reported across 18 locations. Kyiv was the focus of the attack, the air force said.

At least three people were killed and six others injured by strikes in Kyiv, according to updates posted to Telegram by Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported that the strikes caused multiple fires in the capital, noting the “dense fog” hanging over the city on Wednesday morning.

“This is a consequence of previous shelling. The remnants of smoke and soot have risen to the upper layers of the atmosphere, and a high-pressure system is temporarily pressing them down to the ground,” the SES wrote in a post to Telegram.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram that the overnight attacks were “intense” and focused on “the energy infrastructure of Kyiv and the surrounding region.”

Fourteen people were injured nationwide, Zelenskyy said, with attacks reported in the Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad, Rivne, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson and Cherkasy regions.

Zelenskyy thanked foreign partners who have recently committed new air defense support to Ukraine. “Every interceptor missile truly saves lives. And the closer we get to winter, the more of this protection we need. We must do everything to ensure that Russia’s strategy of ballistic and drone terror fails,” he wrote.

Beyond Ukraine’s western borders, the latest wave of Russian attacks prompted activity in Poland, Romania and Moldova.

In Moldova — which borders western Ukraine and is not a NATO member — the national police force said in a post to Facebook that a drone exploded and damaged a communications antenna in the Anenii Noi district in the center of the country. Police personnel were dispatched to the site to investigate the incident, police said.

Poland’s Armed Forces Operational Command said in a post to X on Wednesday morning that military aviation was active in response to Russian strikes in western Ukraine “using jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicles.”

Romania’s Defense Ministry said in a post to X that its forces “detected an aerial target maneuvering east of Izmail, on Ukrainian territory, near the river border with Romania.”

Two Spanish F-18 jets were scrambled “to monitor the situation,” the ministry added. “No incursions into national airspace were detected,” it said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its latest attacks on Ukraine were aimed at targets including “a communications center in Kyiv, energy infrastructure facilities in the Kyiv region that support military production and infrastructure in the port of Izmail.”

The Defense Ministry in Moscow said its forces also shot down at least 384 Ukrainian drones overnight.

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(NEW YORK) — Hurricane Polo made landfall in Baja California overnight and is expected to make a second landfall on the mainland of Mexico on Tuesday.

Polo slammed the Baja California Peninsula near Las Barrancas as a Category 2 hurricane, packing dangerous winds of 96 to 110 mph.

After making landfall around 11 p.m. local time, Polo was downgraded to a Category 1 storm as it trekked across the Baja and took aim at the Sonora region of mainland Mexico.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

Polo formed into a Pacific hurricane on Sept. 20, one of three hurricanes to develop in the Pacific at the same time.

Near-record levels of moisture are coming in from the Pacific, aided by strong flow from Polo.

The hurricane’s remnants will eventually merge later Tuesday with an existing storm system and supercharge moisture across a large swath of the United States.

More than 30 million people on Tuesday across a dozen states from California and Texas to Iowa are under a flood watch.

Overnight, multiple flash flood warnings were in effect across Utah and Arizona.

Zion National Park saw near-record flooding along the Virgin River and Heaps Canyon as a flash flood wave moved through on Monday night.

Water rescues were made on Monday evening in Bullhead City, Arizona, after a vehicle got trapped in floodwaters.

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Police roadblocks and a cordon remained in place in the southwestern British village of Whelford on Tuesday morning, as the investigation continued into a possible terrorist plot near a key U.S. air base, with five men suspected of involvement arrested on Sunday but released on bail on Monday.

The men, who police said were all British nationals from London between the ages of 23 and 25, were arrested in the possession of three vans in the early hours of Sunday close to RAF Fairford, which has long been a key hub for U.S. Air Force operations in the Middle East — including in the ongoing conflict with Iran.

Police said the men were suspected of terrorism and explosives offenses, prompting speculation that the detainees were planning to target RAF Fairford, possibly on behalf of a foreign power.

The men were bailed on Monday. Laurence Taylor, the head of National Counter Terrorism Policing in the U.K., said they were placed under “stringent conditions on their movement and contact with others.” The suspects, who have not been charged, “remain under investigation as we explore multiple lines of enquiry,” Taylor said.

“I know there is significant interest in whether the current geopolitical context has a bearing on this incident,” Taylor said. “We are considering this from every possible angle. Including, that this may be activity committed by proxies, or individuals either knowingly or unknowingly, working on behalf of a foreign state.”

Sunday’s arrests, which came after a tip-off from a local farmer, were touted as a major policing and intelligence success. President Donald Trump was among those praising the operation, telling reporters on Sunday that it had been ongoing for a “long time.”

Trump told reporters that the suspects were “looking to do big damage” to U.S. forces present at RAF Fairford. “The arrest in the U.K. was fantastic. Working with Britain, it was an amazing job,” Trump said.

After they were bailed, Trump suggested the men “might be” linked to Iran, though declined to elaborate further.

“I’m surprised that they released them,” Trump said on Monday during an Oval Office event. “I wouldn’t have done that. Look, they’ve been very good. They worked with us very closely. We know everything about them. We would not have released them.”

The Iranian embassy in London denied any connection to the incident in a statement issued on Monday. The mission condemned what it called “recent unfounded and malicious speculations published by some British individuals and media outlets.”

“The circulation of such fabricated speculations, particularly in the aftermath of the criminal acts of aggression committed by the United States and the Israeli regime against the Iranian people, will serve no purpose other than to fuel Iranophobia propaganda in the UK,” the embassy said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also suggested on Monday that the incident near RAF Fairford was linked to “a foreign actor,” though said he had “to be careful” in what he shared publicly.

“There are some things I cannot say on the air for a lot of different reasons,” Rubio said during an interview with Fox News. “Suffice it to say that what happened, what almost happened, what could have happened in the U.K. over the weekend is a very serious situation. It is one that clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor.”

“I know a lot of people are disturbed by the news that some of these people have been released on bail,” he added, thanking British authorities for their work and cooperation.

“We are dealing with elements in the world, in the case of Iran for example, who have openly threatened to attack American interests globally,” he continued. “We’re going to always take that very seriously, there will be repercussions for that if it ever were to happen or even attempted.”

“There’s a lot more news that will come out in the days to come, but there is only so much I can say right now at this point about it other than this is a very serious thing and will be responded to appropriately,” Rubio said.

ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart, Isabella Murray and Shannon K. Kingston contributed to this report.

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