Pilot stabbed in mid-flight, plane lands in Saudi Arabia after attack on board

As flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv approached the Jordanian border on Wednesday, the journey suddenly turned into a nightmare when the plane began to rapidly lose altitude. “It was like very strong turbulence, except there was no turbulence,” said Almog Italy, interviewed by AFP from Tabuk, in the north-west of Saudi Arabia, where the plane landed safely.

The passenger compares the sensation caused by losing several thousand feet of altitude in a few seconds before the aircraft stabilizes to a “roller coaster”. According to data from the Flightradar24 site, it went from nearly 34,000 feet at 7:21 a.m. (Paris time) to less than 17,000 feet a minute later.

Skip the ad

The man, one of 174 passengers according to the figure given by Israeli media, then observed “enormous chaos at the front of the plane, near the cockpit”. “We understood that one of the pilots had stabbed the other, that passengers and crew members had taken control,” he added, this time upon arrival in Tel Aviv. Present at the airport, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised “heroes” who made it possible to “avoid a great catastrophe”.

“Crazy day”

Also on board, Chaim Nazarovitz describes an “absolutely terrifying” flight. “I heard screams, people hysterical. In an instant, you lose your footing. You are no longer here, you are no longer among the living,” he says. “The plane was really on the verge of crashing and it is only thanks (...) to all those who controlled the co-pilot and neutralized him” that the passengers were safe and sound, relates Miryam Shira Ohayon. She was on board this flight to attend a ceremony in Israel in memory of her brother, killed during the attack by the Palestinian movement Hamas on October 7, 2023. There was “a lot of blood” and the passengers “were very stressed, they thought they were going to die,” she further reported.

In photos sent to AFP, travelers, including children, are gathered in a room at the airport, some sitting on the floor, while a man wears a white T-shirt and jeans stained with blood. In a video filmed inside the plane and shared by Israeli users on social media, a passenger, bleeding from a head wound, calls for help as the plane prepares to land in Saudi Arabia, a country with which Israel does not have diplomatic relations.

“We are under attack on the plane. We have just neutralized the terrorists and we are preparing to land,” the man said in Hebrew. “To everyone who can hear me, we need help. We are about to land in Tabuk, apparently in Saudi Arabia. An unknown zone,” he adds. A few hours later, in Tel Aviv, the tension began to ease. “It was a crazy day, luckily for us it ended well,” concludes Almog Italy, before returning to this unforeseen stopover in Saudi Arabia. “We were warmly welcomed there. They did everything to make us feel at home, like guests.”