Flydubai flight makes emergency landing in Saudi Arabia due to pilot conflict

A Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday due to a conflict between pilots, Israeli media reported.

Flydubai flight FZ1073 turned around while flying over Saudi Arabia and made an emergency landing at Tabuk Airport. Flydubai is the low-cost sister airline of Emirates. Since the normalization of relations between the two countries in 2020, the UAE has become a popular holiday destination for Israeli tourists.

According to Al Arabiya, Dubai Airlines confirmed that an "incident" occurred on board.

Israeli N12 TV station reported that the captain of the flight involved was of Russian origin and the co-pilot was of Ukrainian origin. The two allegedly argued and struggled in the cockpit until one of them lost consciousness.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, there were about 180 Israeli passengers on board the plane at the time. There are no diplomatic relations established between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

According to reports, the passenger plane first transmitted the "7700" code, which represented an emergency, and then switched to the "7500" code, which represented a hijacking signal. So there were initial fears that the plane had been hijacked.

Data from the Flightradar website showed that during the flight, the flight plummeted from an altitude of nearly 34,000 feet to less than 17,000 feet in just one minute. It then circled irregularly in the airspace near the Jordanian border and finally landed in Tabuk about an hour later.

According to the Times of Israel, citing security sources, Israeli fighter jets were scrambled to respond. The Israeli military said Chief of General Staff Eyal Zamir consulted with senior commanders, including the air force chief.

The Israeli Prime Minister's Office said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also participated in the consultations and was paying close attention to developments.

Netanyahu's office said the situation was under control and efforts were being made to ensure the safe return of Israeli passengers. But the Prime Minister's Office did not provide further details about the specific events on board.

Israeli N12 TV station reported that after the plane landed in Saudi Arabia, passengers were asked to stay in their seats and were not allowed to leave the cabin. Only the two pilots were removed from the aircraft.

Flydubai's chief executive informed the Israeli transportation department that the company would send a replacement aircraft from Dubai to Saudi Arabia to pick up passengers on their way to Israel.