NEW YORK (AP) — Yankees captain Aaron Judge remained unsure of his Division Series status following New York's Wild Card Series sweep of the Boston Red Sox.
Sidelined since Sept. 16 by a strained right calf, Judge went to the Yankees' Double-A ballpark in Somerset, New Jersey, for live batting practice Wednesday as he tries to work his way back from a leg injury to be available later in the postseason.
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New York Yankees Aaron Judge, center, stands in the dugout with teammates during the first inning in Game 1 of baseball's American League Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Yankees' Aaron Judge looks on from the dugout during the second inning in Game 1 of baseball's American League Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
New York Yankees' Aaron Judge, left, and Trent Grisham, right, celebrate after winning baseball's American League Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox in Game 2, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Yankees' Aaron Judge walks on the field to take a group photo to celebrate after winning baseball's American League Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox in Game 2, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
New York Yankees' Aaron Judge celebrates after winning baseball's American League Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox in Game 2, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
“Saturday’s a long ways away, but I’m doing everything I can, all morning, night, during the game, everything to prepare myself to be ready to go,” Judge said after Wednesday night's 9-2 win. "So I want to be in there. So we’ll see what happens.”
Judge did not join teammates along the first-base line for introductions before the Yankees' 9-0 win in Tuesday's opener of the best-of-three series.
“I think he was getting treatment,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
Judge ran in the outfield before Tuesday night's game and on Wednesday went to Somerset to hit. He returned to the Bronx in time to watch Game 2.
A three-time AL MVP, Judge was limited to 66 games this season. The 34-year-old slugger hit .241 with 18 homers, 41 RBIs and an .871 OPS, including .174 with one homer and three RBIs in September.
Left-hander Ryan Weathers, sidelined with a left forearm flexor strain since Aug. 22, was to throw a bullpen at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday.
Boone said right-hander Clarke Schmidt won't pitch again this year. The 30-year-old relieved on Sept. 16 at Minnesota in his first big league appearance since Tommy John surgery on July 11, 2025, then was put on the injured list with right biceps inflammation.
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
New York Yankees Aaron Judge, center, stands in the dugout with teammates during the first inning in Game 1 of baseball's American League Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Yankees' Aaron Judge looks on from the dugout during the second inning in Game 1 of baseball's American League Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
New York Yankees' Aaron Judge, left, and Trent Grisham, right, celebrate after winning baseball's American League Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox in Game 2, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Yankees' Aaron Judge walks on the field to take a group photo to celebrate after winning baseball's American League Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox in Game 2, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
New York Yankees' Aaron Judge celebrates after winning baseball's American League Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox in Game 2, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
One pilot stabbed another and attempted to crash a flight from the United Arab Emirates to Israel.
Passengers, many of them Israelis, feared for their lives as the FlyDubai aircraft lost half its altitude in about a minute.
As Israel scrambled fighter jets out of concern for a possible hijacking, a passenger and crew member burst into the cockpit to subdue the attacker, enabling other crew members to gain control of the aircraft, which landed safely in Saudi Arabia.
It was not clear what motivated Wednesday's attack.
The terrifying flight occurred just days before the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that launched the war in Gaza. It has rekindled anxieties about airline security and focused attention on an unsettling question: Are pilots a significant threat to the flying public's safety?
Here’s what we know — and don’t know — about what happened on FlyDubai flight FZ1073:
The distress call came at 8:44 a.m. local time, about two and a half hours after the flight with about 170 passengers left Dubai and headed to Tel Aviv.
The captain and first officer had been fighting in the cockpit after one stabbed the other and tried to crash the aircraft, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The aircraft swiftly lost altitude — dropping from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet (around 10,000 meters to 5,100 meters) in the span of about a minute. It then circled close to the Jordanian border before landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, about an hour later.
A person who heard the flight’s communications with air traffic control described the plane being turned away by Saudi Arabia and Jordan before eventually landing in Tabuk, while passengers screamed in the background. The person who heard the communications spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Aviation experts said they were surprised that the plane did not crash after a descent so extreme that most of the rudder was ripped off the tail.
Both pilots suffered injuries that required hospital treatment, according to a statement from Tabuk's Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport. Netanyahu said Saudi Arabia had arrested one of the pilots.
A plane carrying passengers from the flight landed Wednesday evening in Israel.
A passenger and a crew member managed to enter the cockpit, enabling other crew members to fly the plane to a safe landing, according to Netanyahu, who cited a passenger he had spoken to.
The cockpit door on all aircraft is locked during flight for security reasons — a measure that became the industry standard after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, in which hijackers broke into the cockpits of four domestic flights in the United States.
Netanyahu said on X that the pilot who had been stabbed opened the cockpit door, which "enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic midair disaster.”
One question surrounding this incident is how anyone on the aircraft — especially a pilot — was able to get a knife onboard. It's unclear how big the knife was that was used in the attack or if it was a knife.
In an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity that aired Wednesday night, Netanyahu said the attacker might have hit the captain with an axe. Airlines are generally required to carry crash axes in the cockpit for use in an emergency to break open a window to escape or break open a panel to access a fire.
Pilots undergo rigorous screening, including passing through metal detectors, at checkpoints at all airports. It's also standard for airlines to vet their pilots' background for criminal and employment history, their physical and mental health, as well as having them undergo intelligence and security screening.
Israel has some of the most stringent airline security measures worldwide. Passengers on Israel-bound flights regularly are taken aside for questioning and baggage searches after passing through normal airport security. It's unclear whether the pilots of the FlyDubai flight had been screened as vigorously.
There have been extremely rare occasions when airline security protocols fail. In 2015, the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 locked the captain out of the cockpit and deliberately set the plane on a collision course with a mountainside, killing all 150 people aboard.
On Oct. 31, 1999, EgyptAir Flight 990 went down off the Massachusetts island of Nantucket killing 217 aboard, and investigators at the time said the evidence pointed to it being intentionally crashed into the ocean by its co-pilot after a struggle in the cockpit.
In its final report adopted in 2002, the National Transportation Safety Board said the co-pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder saying “I rely on God” as the plane was going down, while the captain repeatedly urged him to “pull up with me.”
The evidence led the NTSB to conclude that the crash was not the result of a mechanical failure but was “the result of pilot inputs, including opposing pilot inputs where the relief first officer was commanding nose-down and the captain was commanding nose-up movement.”
David Rising contributed from Bangkok, Thailand.
Passengers embark on a FlyDubai aircraft at Ben Gurion International Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Holding balloons people wait for the arrival of passengers at Ben Gurion International Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
A FlyDubai aircraft carrying Israelis who experienced an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia arrives at Ben Gurion International Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
