A Flydubai passenger flight traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after a violent altercation between the pilots triggered emergency signals and a major Israeli security response.
Flight FZ1073 diverted to Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia after transmitting a general emergency signal followed minutes later by a code indicating possible unlawful interference with the aircraft, according to flight-tracking data. Flydubai said the plane landed safely and all passengers were safe and accounted for.
Flight-tracking data showed the Boeing 737 suddenly losing a significant amount of altitude before the emergency alert. Flightradar24 said the aircraft descended nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds before transmitting the first emergency signal.
The alerts prompted Israeli authorities to launch a major security response. The Israeli military scrambled fighter jets, while senior military and government officials held consultations as authorities initially investigated the possibility of a hijacking.
An Israeli official told Reuters that the emergency signals were transmitted after the two pilots became involved in a physical altercation. It remained unclear whether either pilot deliberately activated the alerts.
Israeli officials and media later raised the possibility that the confrontation could have involved an attempted terrorist act. However, that assessment had not been publicly confirmed by Flydubai or Saudi authorities, and a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister’s office earlier said the incident was not believed to have been a hijacking.
Passengers described hearing screams from the cockpit during the incident. One passenger’s mother told Reuters that her daughter reported seeing a man with a knife forcing one of the pilots to the floor and seeing blood inside the aircraft. Reuters said it could not independently verify images circulated by Israeli media that appeared to show a bloodied passenger.
Israel’s prime minister’s office said the situation was under control and that authorities were working to return the Israeli passengers home. The emergency landing was particularly unusual because Israel and Saudi Arabia do not have formal diplomatic relations.
The Dubai-Tel Aviv air corridor has become a heavily traveled route since Israel and the United Arab Emirates normalized relations in 2020. Flydubai operates regular flights between the two cities, with aircraft typically crossing Saudi and Jordanian airspace.
Authorities were continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the cockpit confrontation and what prompted the aircraft’s sudden descent and emergency signals.
