A commercial aircraft flying from Dubai to Israel was diverted on Wednesday after its pilot allegedly attacked the co-pilot and attempted to seize control of the plane with the aim of crashing it, according to an Israeli official.
The official told the Jerusalem Post that passengers had managed to overpower the pilot and restrain him, narrowly preventing what could have been “a major disaster.”
Flydubai Flight FZ1073, traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv, changed course over Jordanian airspace and headed toward Saudi Arabia. The aircraft first issued a general emergency alert before transmitting a second distress signal.
The sudden diversion triggered fears of a possible hijacking and led Israel to scramble fighter jets.
Flight-tracking data indicated that the plane plunged nearly 14,000 feet in under 30 seconds shortly before the first emergency transmission, according to Flightradar24.
Passengers told Israel’s Channel 12 that they heard shouting from the front of the aircraft during an apparent confrontation between the pilots. They also described the jet making a steep descent before eventually landing in Saudi Arabia.
Israel’s security agencies, including the Israel Defense Forces, Mossad and Shin Bet, are reportedly increasingly convinced that the episode may have been an attempted terrorist attack.
A photograph said to have been taken aboard the aircraft appeared to show a passenger wearing a white shirt stained with blood.
A passenger aboard the Flydubai aircraft reportedly had blood covering his shirt
Passengers told Channel 12 that they heard shouting near the cockpit during the pilots’ confrontation before the aircraft made a steep descent and landed in Saudi Arabia
The aircraft initially broadcast squawk code 7700, the standard signal for a general emergency. It then changed to code 7500, used to indicate unlawful interference, before later returning to 7700.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz convened an emergency meeting as officials assessed the incident. Israeli airspace was temporarily closed before being reopened.
A regional official briefed on the situation said a physical struggle had erupted in the cockpit and appeared to involve the pilots, though the cause of the dispute remained unclear.
Israel’s i24NEWS reported that investigators were examining whether a stabbing had also taken place.
“We were either going to crash or be murdered. It was like a terrorist attack in mid-air,” one passenger told the outlet.
The channel said authorities were investigating claims that the pilot had tried to crash the Boeing 737 MAX, an attempt allegedly stopped by the co-pilot and passengers.
Another passenger told Channel 12: “We heard screams on the plane. Then they opened the cockpit and we saw blood, and someone had stabbed the pilot with a pocketknife.”
She said Israeli passengers joined crew members in restraining the alleged attacker. “We prayed, ‘Shema Yisrael,’” she said.
“There were also moments when we thought we weren’t going to make it out alive.”
Another woman, who identified herself as Noam, told the network by phone: “Screams began on the plane… by passengers who realised what was happening.
‘We understand that one of the pilots was stabbed and seriously wounded, and they lost control of the plane. It started to dive quickly. It was very scary.’
One passenger, Itzhak Liber, recorded a video addressed to his family before uploading it onto Facebook.
‘We took control of the situation here on the flight,’ he said.
‘There was an attacker with a knife who stabbed one of the pilots.
‘We just jumped on him and restrained him together with the pilot.’
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He said the attacker had been ‘neutralised’ and was ‘seriously injured’.
The jet dropped from 30,875 feet to 16,750 feet in just 29 seconds
There was a second team of pilots in civilian clothes on the plane, according to the outlet, who allegedly prevented one of the pilots from taking over and crashing the jet.
A senior Israeli official told the channel that if the pilots had not been on the jet, the incident could have ended in another ‘September 11, 2001, attack or 1976 Entebbe hostage incident’.
The plane sent a the ‘squawk code’ of 7700, a general international emergency signal, as it made a U-turn over the Jordan-Saudi Arabia border.
When it flew over Saudi Arabia, it briefly issued a code 7500, meaning a hijacking or unlawful interference.
Data from publicly available sources shows that two hours and fifteen minutes into the flight, the jet suddenly took a sharp nosedive, dropping from 34,000 to around 17,000 feet in under a minute as it sped up from 411 knots to nearly 600.
The aircraft recovered slightly for several seconds, reaching 21,650 feet, before dropping sharply again, this time to under 14,000 feet.
Over the next hour, the plane failed to maintain a steady altitude, but it remained at around 15,000 feet, indicating it was being controlled by hand rather than autopilot, according to the Times of Israel.
Israeli authorities were unable to make contact with the jet during the incident.
A second official confirmed that Israel had scrambled warplanes, fearing a hijacking of a plane carrying dozens of its citizens.
Not long after the incident, the plane landed in Tabuk, a civilian and military base in the kingdom, with 180 passengers onboard.
Netanyahu has warned in recent days of unspecified, escalated security threats.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was still under investigation.
Following the emergency landing of the plane in Saudi Arabia, the airline is sending a second plane to Tabruk Airport to fly passengers the remainder of the way to Israel.
Katz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir were also considering the possibility of dispatching Israeli military or civilian aircraft in order to bring the Israelis home, Walla learned.
Israel has not experienced a hijacking in decades but maintains some of the strictest airport security in the world.
Commercial flight have flown between Israel and the United Arab Emirates since the countries normalised ties in 2020.
The Flydubai aircraft, which took off from Dubai, abruptly turned around while flying over Jordan after a suspected security incident was reported onboard
A Flydubai spokesperson told the Daily Mail: ‘Flydubai can confirm that flight FZ 1073 operating from Dubai International (DXB) to Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV) on September 30 experienced an incident while en route.
‘The aircraft has landed safely in Tabuk Airport (TUU) and all passengers are safe and accounted for.
‘The safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew remain our highest priority.
‘Our teams are working closely with the relevant authorities. Further updates will be issued as additional confirmed details become available.’
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.