Emergency landing of Flydubai flight in Saudi Arabia after attack in the cockpit

According to Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a suspected “terrorist” wanted to crash a Flydubai airline plane. The aim was to “murder the 180 Israelis on board,” wrote Ben-Gvir on the X platform. Various Israeli media outlets reported, citing passengers on the plane, that one of the pilots had injured the other with a knife. Flydubai initially confirmed an “incident” on board.

Flydubai flight FZ1073 was en route from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning. According to the flight tracking service “Flightradar24”, he sent out a general emergency signal in Jordanian airspace. A few minutes later there was a signal with a code that indicated a hijacking, and later the plane sent another general distress signal. Flightradar24 data also shows that the plane abruptly dropped from an altitude of nearly 34,000 feet to less than 17,000 feet within a minute. At 9:45 a.m. the Boeing 737 landed unscheduled at Tabuk Airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

According to media reports, passengers helped to overpower the attacker. The mother of an Israeli passenger told the AFP news agency that according to her daughter, one of the pilots tried to stab his colleague with a knife. “My daughter called and said she was in Saudi Arabia,” said Yasmine Abécassis, waiting at Tel Aviv airport. “She said that one pilot tried to kill the other pilot with a knife.” Alerted by loud screams, passengers stormed into the cockpit and “wrestled the guy down,” reported Abécassis.

An Israeli woman told the Israeli television station N12 that there was great fear among the passengers and that there were “screams and panic”. “Some men, including Israelis, stood up and overpowered the attacker,” she said. The passengers are doing well now. “The situation could have ended differently,” she said.

Another Israeli woman told the station that she heard screaming on the plane and then saw a lot of blood in the cockpit. “There were moments when we thought we wouldn’t make it out alive.”

The Israeli news portal ynet reported that the suspected co-pilot came from Oman. However, there was initially no official confirmation of this. It had previously been said that the pilot was of Russian origin and the co-pilot was of Ukrainian origin.

An Israeli spokeswoman confirmed that the suspected co-pilot was currently being questioned in Saudi Arabia. Initially, only a dispute between the pilots was reported as the reason for the emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demanded in a post on Platform This applies to the attacker as well as to “every state or terrorist organization that sent him”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said through his office that he had held consultations and was following developments: "The incident is under control. All necessary measures are currently being taken to bring the Israeli passengers back safely to Israel."

Flydubai said the plane landed safely and all passengers were fine. According to television station N12, the approximately 180 passengers were instructed to remain seated and not to leave the plane. However, the pilot and co-pilot were taken off board. Both had injuries and were taken to hospital.