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A pilot stabbed by his co-pilot while flying a passenger plane bound for Israel was trained in Dunedin for 18 months.
Mainland Air chief executive Philip Kean said the pilot, Smit Machchhar, lived in Mosgiel and trained with Mainland Air as a student between 2008 and 2009.
Mr Machchhar was stabbed by his co-pilot on a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
Israeli officials said on Wednesday the co-pilot tried to crash the plane after stabbing Mr Machchhar, sending the jet plunging nearly 14,000 feet (4267 metres) in less than 30 seconds.
However, passengers subdued him while other pilots landed the plane safely in Saudi Arabia.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised Mr Machchhar, as a “true hero”, and cited his “extraordinary bravery”.
"He saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals.
“Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker - preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster,” Mr Netanyahu said in a post on X.
India’s embassy in Saudi Arabia said in a post on X that Mr Machchhar was in hospital and in a stable condition.
Mr Kean described Mr Machchhar as an excellent pilot and a good person.
They were still in contact every few months, and Mr Machchhar still did some recruitment work for the company.
Mr Kean said Mr Machchhar had done very well since he trained at Mainland Air, and he had sent through well-wishes.
"I'd say he's resting up at the moment, after a very traumatic experience, I would think.”
Mr Machchhar holds a full New Zealand commercial licence and after training moved back to India to work for a local airline there.
More recently he was working for flydubai, and was piloting an international flight when he was stabbed.
According to unverified reports published by the Aviation Herald, one of the pilots who took control of the plane after the altercation was a New Zealand citizen, while the other was from South Africa.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said it was aware of reports that a New Zealand citizen was on board but it did not have formal confirmation as yet.
Describing the event as "a highly severe security incident", Netanyahu said Saudi authorities would interrogate the co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 from the United Arab Emirates to Israel.
The airline said in a statement that the underlying reasons for the event remained unknown and warned against "premature speculation". The cause of the altercation between the pilots was not clear.
The co-pilot, who an Israeli official identified as an Omani national, was arrested after the plane landed, Netanyahu said. Israel's Transport Ministry said there would be a joint investigation of the incident with the defence establishment.
"All passengers are out of harm's way," Netanyahu said in a video statement released by his office. He also ordered tighter security on both Israeli and non-Israeli carriers flying into Israel.
The passengers departed Saudi Arabia for Israel aboard a flydubai replacement aircraft after eight hours on the ground.
Netanyahu quoted a passenger as saying that passengers along with a member of the crew broke into the cockpit after the aircraft "entered a tailspin and began to dive" and found the co-pilot "trying to sabotage the plane's systems".
"They saved many lives. They prevented a heavy disaster," he said.
A Netanyahu spokesman told Reuters the wounded pilot, covered with blood and lying on the floor, had clicked open the release on the cockpit door. A second set of pilots on board, who were due to replace the first pair, landed the plane.
The aircraft's flight data showed it suddenly and rapidly descended by nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds before a first emergency signal was sent on Wednesday morning, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
PASSENGER REPORTEDLY WITNESSED PILOT FORCED TO THE FLOOR BY MAN HOLDING A KNIFE
Yasmin Abukasis said her daughter Miriam, who was among the passengers on the flight, had told her that she had heard screaming and that a man holding a knife had forced one of the pilots onto the floor, and that there was blood everywhere.
Israeli media published a photo purportedly taken from inside the plane, which appeared to show a passenger's blood-soaked shirt. Reuters could not immediately verify the image.
Flydubai operates daily return flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv, a route that is popular among Israeli nationals. The flight path normally uses airspace over Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
It is not the first time a flight between Israel and the UAE has landed in Saudi Arabia. A flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Riyadh in September 2025 due to a medical incident, Israeli media reported at the time.
In a video purportedly of an Israeli passenger on board the flydubai flight and carried widely by Israeli media, the passenger said one of the pilots was seriously injured and the other was slightly injured, after one of the pilots was stabbed.
Saudi Arabia's Tabuk airport, where the plane landed, said both pilots had been hospitalised after sustaining injuries. Neither the airport nor the purported Israeli passenger identified the attacker.
INCIDENT COMES WEEKS AHEAD OF ISRAELI ELECTION
The incident heightened security fears in Israel weeks before Israelis vote in the first election since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks, with Israel's security figuring prominently in the campaigning.
Responding to the incident on X, far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote, "Terrorism is a devil with whom no agreement must be reached".
Israeli media published conflicting reports on the incident, with some outlets reporting that a pilot had tried to crash the passenger plane in an alleged suicide attempt. Some Israeli media outlets identified the pilots as Omani and Emirati nationals, while others said they were Russian and Ukrainian.
"Every pilot that is going to be flying into Israel, we are going to know the pilots' identities, know who they are, and do some type of security check," Doron Spielman, a Netanyahu spokesperson, told Reuters.
Netanyahu met on Sunday with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during a rare visit to the Gulf country. Israel and the UAE have forged close security, military and economic ties since establishing diplomatic ties in 2020.
Earlier this year, Israel provided the UAE with Iron Dome air-defence systems and Israeli personnel to operate them, helping defend against Iranian attacks launched after Israel and the United States began strikes on Iran.
The UAE has yet to comment on the flydubai incident, while the Dubai-owned airline has only said the flight experienced an "incident" and diverted to Tabuk, where it landed safely, and that all passengers were safe and accounted for.
— additional reporting Reuters