A cockpit axe and a landing in Saudi Arabia: ITV News stays on the Flydubai attack

The newest short on the Dubai-Tel Aviv flight passed the captain's own interview within nine hours, and its comment section filled about eight times faster than usual.

Channel: ITV NewsStory of October 4, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 208,120 views a day, 16 times a normal first day on this channel (13,126).

The FlyDubai captain attacked by cockpit axe during Israel-bound flight

Two days ago the story on ITV News was Captain Smit Machchhar describing, from his hospital bed in Abu Dhabi, how he got back up after being stabbed in the cockpit. The newest short adds a harder detail: an axe.

"The FlyDubai captain attacked by cockpit axe during Israel-bound flight" sets out what officials have said since. Authorities in the UAE called what happened on board a "terrorist attack." The plane made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, where an arrest followed. According to the description, officials also said that the man now held had earlier been kept from flying for his own country's airline over concerns about extremist views.

That last point is what the comments keep returning to. The most discussed question is how vetting works between airlines, and several viewers ask why the early accounts spoke of a knife while this report speaks of an axe.

The short passed 110,000 views in nine hours, already more than the captain's interview has drawn since Friday. It came on a day when the channel as a whole was quieter than usual, which makes the pull of this one story stand out more.

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More from ITV NewsThis week on the channel +9.5M views this week'What if I don't get up?': the Flydubai captain speaks for himself on ITV NewsCaptain Smit Machchhar told India's prime minister about the attack in a video call, on a Friday when diesel passed £2 a litre and Manchester City lodged its a…Channel: ITV News · Story of October 3, 2026

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The numbers

The short ran far ahead of a usual first day for the channel, while ITV News overall had a slower day than normal.

the video's first day

usual first day here

13,126

this video

208,120

subscribers

2,250,000

no significant change in the last 7 days

total views

1,667,661,150

views per day

800,591

typical day: 1,469,658

the video

views

112,339

likes

328

comments

172

days online

1

compared with similar channels (subscribers)

7NEWS Australia

2,260,000

ITV News

2,250,000

NowThis

2,230,000

BBC World Service

2,220,000

CBC News: The National

2,200,000

GBNews

2,190,000

As of October 4, 2026 · Data source: Trari Social News, Trari Traffic Trends and Ranking Platform, Google YouTube

Subscriber, view, like and comment counts are YouTube's. Rates, usual days, rankings, comparisons and categories are Trari's own calculations.

Where next?

Also in News networks and broadcastersVideo taking off 13x its usual first dayFlyDubai captain Smit Machchhar, stabbed in the cockpit, speaks to Imtiaz TyabThe short interview from his hospital bed drew about 200,000 views in its first day, where a CBS Evening News short usually ends near 15,000.Channel: CBS Evening News · Story of October 4, 2026 A different discovery todayVideo taking off 19x its usual first dayBob Ross, a box and a lost step one: Reighar's 'How to Draw a Sheep'The animated short passed a million views in just over a day, and its comments turned into a support group for everyone who has ever fallen behind in an art tu…Channel: Reighar · Story of October 4, 2026