Trump’s 737 MAX stress claim is not settled by flydubai jet’s safe landing

President Donald Trump congratulated Boeing in a Truth Social post dated 1 October 2026, saying a 737 MAX had withstood “G Forces and Strain far beyond what it was designed and expected to do”. He praised the aircraft’s design and congratulated Boeing chief executive Kelly Ortberg, but gave no flight number or load measurements. [1]

The praise followed an incident on 30 September aboard flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv. An altercation occurred in the flight deck, and the aircraft diverted to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia. News reports linked Trump’s post to the flight, although he did not identify it in his message. Flydubai says crew members travelling aboard secured the aircraft and landed it safely. [2] [7]

Flightradar24 recorded a steep descent beginning at 05:21 UTC, followed by a sharp ascent and another descent. AirNav Radar identified the plane as a 737-8 MAX and estimated its fastest descent at about 30,900ft per minute. Vertical speed cannot show the G-forces experienced by the aircraft or the strain on its parts. FAA manoeuvring-load rules also set conditional criteria, rather than a single breaking point that can be inferred from a descent rate. [3] [4] [5] [6]

The safe landing came with reported damage. An airline official told The National that the rudder was damaged; Associated Press described it as torn away. The UAE’s civil aviation authority said some crew members were injured. Philip Kean, head of the New Zealand flight school where the captain trained, called the aircraft’s survival “miraculous”. [8] [9]

In separate remarks on 30 September, reported by The Jerusalem Post, Trump said he had discussed the incident with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that the aircraft had exceeded normal operating limits. He also cautioned that he did not know whether the story he had heard was true. His later Boeing post made a different, more definite comparison with design expectations.