A flight took off from Dubai International Airport.
Headed towards Tel Aviv as its destination.
Then suddenly the altitude at which this flight was flying reduced to almost half in just a few seconds.
How did this happen? Let us try to tell you this.
In flight FZ1073, one pilot suddenly attacked another pilot. The pilot who was attacked is Indian citizen Smit Machar.
Despite being injured, Smit opened the cockpit gate and with the help of other passengers and the positioning pilot, a major accident was averted. Or rather, this step saved the lives of 174 people.
Now Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump and Indian PM Narendra Modi are praising Captain Smit.
But in this entire incident, it is important to mention those 17 minutes in which important things happened.
Flight FZ1073 took off from Dubai for Tel Aviv at around 8.30 pm Indian time. Flightradar data shows that the flight appeared to be flying normally for the next two hours.
Then suddenly at 10.51 AM Indian time the plane started descending rapidly.
It took only 90 seconds and the plane descended below 17 thousand feet. That is, about half of the altitude at which the plane was flying.
Then after about 9 minutes. That means around 11 o'clock... a code alert is sent from the flight. 7700 flight code.
This code means that there is some emergency during the flight.
After about 7 minutes. That means, around 11.7, the flight traffic platform Flight Radar 24 receives another new code.
This new code was 7500. This code indicates that there has been some illegal interference in the flight.
Usually this means hijacking.
This is the code due to which initially there were reports in the Indian media that there was a possibility of plane hijacking.
An expert from BBC Verify has said that this combo of code 7500, code 7700 and the sudden downfall of the flight. This indicates that an attempt was made to control the aircraft.
This entire incident took place between 10.51 am and 11.7 am.
During this time, what the eyewitnesses told about what happened inside the flight was something like this-
One pilot attacked another pilot. Injured pilot Smit Machar opened the cockpit gate before becoming unconscious.
Passengers came to help and the positioning pilot tried to take control of the flight.
Positioning pilots means pilots who are traveling by air to fly from another airport.
This was what happened inside the flight.
Now the question is, what was seen outside after this i.e. what was revealed from the radar?
If we look at the flight radar data, we will find that the plane took a full U turn and was seen moving in that direction. Later the plane landed at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia.
After this, tracking data stopped appearing on Flightradar 24.
This data was seen in the flight radar just before landing at Tabuk airport. That means around 12.30 pm Indian time.
Flydubai says all passengers are safe.
But concrete information about what happened between the pilots is expected to be available soon.
But passengers say that the pilot was attacked with some sharp object during the flight.
In the footage analyzed by BBC Verify, the man seen on the blood-stained floor is in a pilot's uniform.
