Pilot is said to have stabbed colleague with knife on Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv

According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a pilot of the emergency-landed Flydubai plane with around 180 passengers on board is said to have stabbed another pilot with a knife in the cockpit. The plane made an emergency landing at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia at 9:45 a.m. on its way from Dubai to Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu said the pilot apparently tried to crash the plane, which was filled with mostly Israelis. The suspected attacker, whom an Israeli government official described as an Omani national, was arrested after the plane landed, Netanyahu said. He is being questioned by the Saudi security authorities.

Netanyahu described the events on board a Flydubai plane en route from Dubai to Tel Aviv as a "very serious security incident." Almost all of the passengers were Israelis, Netanyahu said in a video message. During a telephone conversation, a passenger described to him how the plane began to spin and went into a nosedive. According to the description, the passenger and a crew member managed to break into the cockpit. They knocked out the attacking pilot while he was trying to damage the aircraft's apparatus.

Video is said to show passengers during a dive

Another crew that was on board went into the cockpit and managed to stabilize the aircraft. Netanyahu expressed his admiration “for the heroes who showed extraordinary presence of mind and daring.” "You saved many lives, you prevented a serious catastrophe," said Netanyahu. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz spoke of an attempted terrorist attack. The "attempted jihadist attack" was only thwarted thanks to the courage of Israeli passengers.

A video posted on social media in Israel purports to show the moments on board the Flydubai plane when the plane went into a nosedive. The video shows frightened passengers and dramatic scenes inside the cabin. According to media reports, the plane fell around 4,000 meters in around a minute. “What happened?” a woman in the video repeatedly asks in Hebrew, sobbing. Passengers are asked via loudspeakers to remain seated. After landing, the pilot and co-pilot were taken off board. Both were injured and were taken to hospital, according to Tabuk Airport.

A few hours after the emergency landing, a replacement plane was chartered and, according to media reports, took off for Tel Aviv with the Israeli passengers. There are usually very few direct flights between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which do not have diplomatic relations. According to reports, several passengers initially refused to get back on a Flydubai plane. However, Saudi Arabia rejected an Israeli request to pick up the citizens with an Israeli military plane. Numerous relatives were waiting at Tel Aviv airport.

According to a media report, Israel believes it was a lone perpetrator. There is no indication that a state or a terrorist organization could be the mastermind of the incident, reported the Israeli TV station Kan, citing Israeli security circles.