President Donald Trump personally blamed Iran for the foiled FlyDubai cockpit axe attack, parting from Vice President JD Vance who said he has seen no conclusive evidence yet.
On a FlyDubai Boeing 737 MAX flight headed for Tel Aviv on September 30, 2025, the co-pilot attacked the captain with a cockpit crash axe in a midair assault that sent the plane plummeting thousands of feet before passengers intervened.
More than 170 people were on board, most of them Israelis. The aircraft diverted to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, where the assailant was apprehended. Captain Smit Machchhar unlocked the cockpit door during the struggle, allowing passengers to subdue the attacker and keep the jet from being brought down.
Daily Mail reporting captured the clear split that followed inside the administration over whether Tehran stood behind the plot.
Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson asked Trump on Monday whether Iran was responsible for the attack on the flight.
Trump answered without hesitation.
"I do, I personally do,"
He had already suggested, based on what he was hearing, that Iran was linked to the plot. He said Iran would be hit very hard if responsible, and that the co-pilot could have been an agent of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Earlier that same Monday, before boarding a flight to Alaska with his wife, Vance struck a different tone with reporters. He would not lock in an Iran finding.
Vance pointed straight to the intelligence lane.
"In terms of involvement with Iran, that's something I defer to John Ratcliffe and some of the intelligence folks on,"
He added that he did not want to get ahead of any announcements.
"It's certainly something we're looking at, but I wouldn't say I've seen anything conclusive just yet."
That caution lands against a longer pattern of friction over Iran. Trump has already overridden Vance on Iran by elevating the nuclear threat as the top priority, showing who sets the strategic line when the two diverge.
Iran denied responsibility. As of Monday evening, officials still had not stated a motive, and the assailant’s name had not been officially confirmed. Reports identified the co-pilot as Omani national Hamam al-Hammami, though that identification remained unofficial.
Indian captain Smit Machchhar absorbed the axe attack and still managed to open the cockpit door so passengers could rush the attacker. He was stabbed and later placed under treatment. Dubai Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum met him afterward in the UAE.
An NPR source familiar with the investigation said the co-pilot planned to crash the aircraft into Ben Gurion Airport and was believed to have worked alone. The plane was later seen at Ben Gurion after the diversion and recovery.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a Fox News interview last week, described the attacker’s path without rushing to a state sponsor.
"underwent Islamist radical indoctrination."
He stopped short of tying the suspect to Tehran.
"I think it's too early to say whether he had any connections with Iran or with anyone else,"
Trump’s harder line fits a record of treating Iranian proxy violence as a live threat rather than a closed file. Earlier coverage of administration strain even cast Vance as a possible fall guy on Iran deal fallout, a reminder that Iran policy has tested the partnership before.
Vance has backed Trump on other fights, including the move to pull White House credentials from CNN, Politico, and MS Now. Alignment on media access has been real. Alignment on Iran timing is not automatic.
Trump has also cooled public talk about a 2028 handoff. He has called Vance great while pumping the brakes on endorsement talk, and he has said 2028 discussion is way too early even as Vance builds a primary lead. The FlyDubai exchange fits that same pattern: the president leads, the vice president measures his words.
Flight FZ 1073 never reached its target as a weapon. Passengers and a wounded captain stopped the axe attack in the cockpit. The political argument that followed is simpler. Trump named Iran as the responsible party on the evidence he was hearing. Vance said the conclusive file was not in front of him yet and handed the question to CIA Director John Ratcliffe and the intelligence community.
When a jet full of civilians nearly becomes a guided missile, waiting for perfect paperwork is a luxury the country cannot always afford.
