A commercial flight travelling from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Israel was forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday morning following an alleged midair stabbing and altercation in the cockpit, reports The Independent.
According to witness accounts reported by the Jerusalem Post, one pilot stabbed the other inside the cockpit before passengers sitting near the front of the plane forced the attacker out.
Two other pilots who were on board at the back of the aircraft helped land the flight. Passengers told Israel’s Channel 12 by telephone that they heard shouts from those sitting further forward who heard the altercation, and that the plane dipped steeply before landing.
Flydubai Flight FZ1073, a Boeing 737 Max 8 carrying around 150 Israeli passengers to Ben Gurion Airport, transmitted emergency signals after dramatically dropping thousands of feet and veering off course roughly two and a half hours after departure.
FlightRadar24 data showed the aircraft abruptly descended from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet within a minute —before making an erratic circle near the Jordanian border and landing about an hour later at Tabuk, a civilian and military base in northwestern Saudi Arabia, reports AP.
The incident briefly raised fears of a hijacking and prompted Israel to scramble warplanes. An Israeli official stated that a “major disaster was narrowly avoided”, with Israeli security agencies—including the IDF, Mossad, and Shin Bet—believing the incident may have been an intended act of terror or an attempt to attack Israelis.
However, Israeli media citing security officials also reported that the incident stemmed from a feud between the two pilots, though regional officials noted it was not immediately clear what caused the fight.
A regional official confirmed that crew members have been questioned as part of the investigation, with officials speaking on condition of anonymity. All passengers and crew members on board are safe, though passengers remain inside the aircraft under a heavy presence of Saudi security forces surrounding them.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that the situation was under control and that Israel was working to bring the passengers home, following recent warnings from Netanyahu of escalated security threats.
Meanwhile, a second Flydubai flight, FZ1081 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, was diverted back to Dubai.
Flydubai, the lower-cost sister carrier of Emirates, confirmed that flight FZ1073 en route to Ben Gurion experienced an incident and landed safely in Tabuk. The carrier stated that its teams are working closely with relevant authorities as confirmed details become available.
Commercial flights have operated between Israel and the UAE since the two countries normalised ties in 2020, making the UAE a popular vacation destination for Israeli tourists. Israel maintains some of the world’s strictest airport security, including invasive check-in procedures for Israel-bound flights, and has not experienced a hijacking in decades.
