Were you on the flydubai flight?
Anxiety, PTSD and the possibility of recognition as hostile-action casualties

Last updated: 1 October 2026. This article describes what is known as of the date of the update. If there are developments, we will update it here.

On 30 September 2026, flydubai flight FZ1073 left Dubai for Tel Aviv. According to the airline’s statement, a confrontation took place in the cockpit during the flight and the aircraft made an emergency landing. According to reports, there were around 170 passengers on board, most of them Israelis, among them dozens of children; the co-pilot attacked the captain, the aircraft lost altitude sharply, one passenger was slightly hurt, and there were no fatalities. The passengers were brought back to Israel that same evening.

Most of the passengers were not physically injured. But everyone who was on board went through an event in which their lives were in danger, and it is natural for that to have an effect. If right now you are feeling on edge, finding it hard to sleep, or your thoughts keep going back to those same minutes — that is a familiar and expected reaction after an event like this. It does not mean that something is wrong with you.

This article was written for you and for your families. We will try to explain in plain language what happens to the mind after an event like this, what is worth doing right now, and what is known — and what is not yet known — about the possibility that the passengers might be recognised as hostile-action casualties.

What happens to the mind after an event like this

In the first days and weeks after a life-threatening event, many people experience reactions such as:

• Thoughts or images from the flight that come back again and again, even when you do not want them to
• Difficulty falling asleep, broken sleep or bad dreams
• Feeling on edge and startling at sudden noises, a sense that you have to be “on guard” all the time
• Avoidance: thinking about a flight, an airport or even a long journey brings on stress
• Irritability and difficulty concentrating, or, on the contrary, a sense of detachment and numbness
• Physical symptoms: a racing heart, pressure in the chest, stomach aches (a new or strong physical symptom is worth having checked by a doctor)

For many people these reactions gradually ease over time. It is worth seeking professional help if they do not ease, if they get worse, or if they affect your sleep, your work or your family life. For some people the symptoms appear only after a while, once routine returns. That is familiar too. And if the distress is severe — for example, if thoughts of harming yourself come up — do not wait: go to a doctor or an emergency department straight away.

What is worth doing right now

These steps are worth taking in any case, regardless of the decision that is made in the future:

1. See your family doctor or a mental health professional. Tell them that you were on the flight and how you have been feeling since, and ask for this to be written in your medical record. Seeing someone matters first and foremost so that you get help. It also creates documentation from the first days, and documentation like that is hard to reconstruct later.
2. Keep your flight documents. The flight ticket, the boarding pass (a screenshot from the app counts too), messages you received from the airline, and the details of the flight that brought you back to Israel.
3. Write down a few basic details, if it feels right for you. The flight number, where you were sitting, and what has changed for you since. There is no need to describe what happened in detail. If even that is hard right now, it can wait, or you can ask someone close to you to write it down for you.
4. Keep any other document. Sick notes, days absent from work, visit summaries — anything that shows how the event has affected your day-to-day life.

If you would like to read more about documentation for a psychological injury: how to prove PTSD to the National Insurance Institute.

Who decides whether this is a “hostile action”?

Neither Bituach Leumi nor government ministers. The decision as to whether an injury is a “hostile-action injury” is made by the approving authority at the Ministry of Defence, and its approval is a precondition for a claim to Bituach Leumi under the Victims of Hostile Action (Pensions) Law.

According to reports, the Minister of Defence described the event as an attempted terror attack. That is a statement by a minister, not official recognition. The airline said that the motives are not known, and the investigations are still ongoing. At this stage the motive has not been officially determined.

When an event happened outside Israel, the law sets additional requirements. It is not enough that Israelis were injured: as a rule, the question is whether the act was directed against Israel or against the Jewish people, and whether it is connected to a hostile party — a state or an organisation, or someone who acted on their behalf or to advance their aims. Which test is relevant, if any, depends on what emerges about the motive and the background.

The law also contains a rule that makes things easier for the injured person where there are reasonable grounds to assume that the injury was a hostile-action injury. But that rule does not decide the matter on its own, and the decision depends on the findings of the investigation. At this stage it is impossible to know whether the event will be recognised.

And what about a psychological injury alone? The law defines disability as an impairment of functioning, whether physical or mental, and Bituach Leumi’s claim form (בל/580 (BL/580)) refers explicitly to an “anxiety injury” and asks for a summary of psychological treatment to be attached. In other words, if the event is recognised, a passenger who was not physically injured may be recognised because of anxiety or PTSD — subject to the decision of the approving authority and to a medical assessment. (More on this: depression, anxiety and PTSD — recognition and rights.)

What happened in previous events abroad

It is important to say this honestly: we have not found a documented case in which aircraft passengers who were not physically injured were recognised, and every event is examined on its own merits.

In the past there have been events outside Israel that were recognised as hostile actions, for example in Burgas, Bulgaria (2012) and in Alexandria, Egypt (2023). The documented recognitions in those events are of people who were killed, and each one was granted according to the circumstances and the motive established in that particular event. After the attack on Israelis in Amsterdam in November 2024, Bituach Leumi announced that the injured would receive assistance as hostile-action casualties, and there too the decision on each claim remained with the approving authority. In the case of the flight, as of the date of this update, no such announcement has been published, and it is impossible to know whether one will be.

Who can file

• Residents of Israel — the law applies to them even when the injury happened outside Israel.
• An Israeli citizen living abroad — only if less than a year has passed since the day they stopped being a resident of Israel.
• Someone who is neither an Israeli citizen nor a resident of Israel — the law does not apply to them for an event that happened outside Israel, except in special cases, such as someone injured in the course of work for an Israeli employer.

What the process looks like

1. A claim on form בל/580 (BL/580) is submitted to Bituach Leumi, which passes it on to the approving authority. Claims are filed within one year of the date of the event, so there is time, and there is no need to decide about it in the first few days.
2. The approving authority’s decision — under the law, within three months, unless the deadline has been extended for special reasons.
3. If the injury is recognised — you can claim funding for the medical treatment related to the injury, a benefit for the period in which you could not work because of the treatment (form בל/571 (BL/571)), and a determination of disability percentages by a medical committee (form בל/581 (BL/581), which is filed within 12 months of the date of recognition). On preparing: the medical committee — how to prepare properly, and on the percentages for a psychological injury: PTSD and disability percentages.
4. If the approving authority decides that the injury is not a hostile-action injury — you can file an appeal with the appeals committee under the Victims of Hostile Action (Pensions) Law, within 60 days of the day on which you received notice of the decision. Other decisions later on, for example those of a medical committee, have different appeal routes and deadlines (appealing a Bituach Leumi decision).

A broad overview of the rights on this route: hostile-action casualties — an overview of the rights.

And if the event is not recognised?

There are other routes worth knowing about. This is a general map only, not a recommendation for any particular case:

• People who were flying for work — can look into the work-injury route at Bituach Leumi, regardless of the decision on hostile action (work accident — the Bituach Leumi route). If in the end the event is recognised after all, and it turns out that a person is eligible under both routes, they will choose between them within the deadlines set by law.
• A severe and long-lasting psychological injury that limits the ability to work — can also be examined on the general disability route, where the thresholds are high.
• A claim against the airline — this is an entirely separate matter from Bituach Leumi, and it is not part of this article.

A few things worth remembering

• You do not need to wait “until things become clear” before seeing a doctor. The decision on the event may take time. A visit to the doctor helps you first and foremost, and it also leaves a record of what you are going through.
• It is worth telling the doctor about the flight. If the record says only “anxiety” or “insomnia”, without the event, it will be hard to link the two later.
• Even without a physical injury, there is something to look into. The law also recognises psychological injury — if the event is recognised.
• A headline is not an official announcement. A headline saying that Bituach Leumi “will pay” is not a decision. What counts is the approving authority’s decision and announcements from Bituach Leumi itself.
• There is no need to compare yourself with others. “Others went through worse than me” — perhaps, but what matters is what is happening to you.

In summary

What you went through on this flight was a life-threatening event, even if you came out of it without a scratch. It is all right for it to be hard, and it is all right to ask for help. The first and most important step is to see your family doctor or a mental health professional.

If the event is recognised as a hostile action, passengers who were psychologically injured may also be recognised, subject to the approving authority’s decision and to a medical assessment. At present this is not known. If you would like to look at your situation, including routes that do not depend on recognition of the event, we prepare and support people through processes with Bituach Leumi: we go through the documents with you and explain what is needed and when. You can contact us by phone on 077-711-6118.