The UAE was on Wednesday investigating the mid-air security scare that forced a flydubai plane to Tel Aviv to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
The pilot and co-pilot were injured in what the airline said was an altercation on the flight deck. Crew members intervened to help land the plane safely at Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk Airport.
The airline said all passengers were safe. They were later brought to Tel Aviv on a second flydubai plane.
Much is unknown about what happened on board. The UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority said it was conducting an investigation to "determine the causes and circumstances of the incident".
The airline said the "reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation". Israel's Defence Minister, Israel Katz, said the incident was an attempt to crash the plane.
Witness accounts were emerging from the passengers. Ofir Spiegel, whose mother was on the flight, told The National he was rushing to meet her. "She told us there was a strange noise from the cockpit and then the plane started to fall," he said. "Some passengers got into the cockpit and saved the plane. She’s fine, thank God."
The UAE aviation authority described what happened as a security incident that necessitated diverting the aircraft and making an emergency landing. The plane had taken off from Dubai International Airport on Wednesday morning.
"The incident resulted in injuries to some of the aircraft crew, who were transferred to the hospital to receive the necessary care in the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the authority said.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, spoke to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and enquired about the well-being of the passengers, state news agency Wam reported.
Flydubai said it had sent two replacement aircraft to Tabuk to transport passengers and crew from Saudi Arabia. The airline said the incident had no impact on other scheduled operations across its network.
A senior flydubai official told The National that the airline could not disclose the nationalities of the two pilots. He said the circumstances would only become clear once investigators had access to the black boxes. He added that the aircraft’s rudder had been damaged but there were no serious injuries among the passengers.
On the flight
Flight FZ1073 was travelling from Dubai International Airport to Ben Gurion International Airport. Tabuk Airport said air-traffic control had received a distress call from the flight requesting an emergency landing at 8.44am.
An emergency was declared at the airport and preparations were made to assist the passenger plane, which landed at 9.45am. The captain and co-pilot were injured and were taken to hospital, the airport said, without providing details on the nature or severity of their injuries.
Tabuk airport said later in a separate statement that all passengers had departed on a replacement aircraft to Tel Aviv at 5.40pm.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "one of the pilots stabbed the second pilot and apparently tried to crash the plane with everyone on board". He said Indian pilot Smit Machchhar was the captain attacked by his colleague, paying tribute to his "extraordinary bravery".
Mr Netanyahu said almost all the passengers on the flight were Israelis. One of them reported that "the plane went into a spin and began to dive", Mr Netanyahu said. "He told me that, somehow or other, he managed to break into the cockpit with one of the crew members" and neutralise the attacker.
"Another flight crew on board entered the cockpit and managed to stabilise the plane," he added.
He added that the stabbing pilot was arrested and was being interrogated by the Saudi authorities. Israeli security services have been instructed to prepare for additional potential threats.
The aircraft was secured by off-duty flydubai crew members travelling on the flight, who helped divert the aircraft and land it safely, the airline said.
Mr Netanyahu's statement comes amid intense political backlash in Israel and accusations that the Prime Minister is politicising the incident to boost his election campaign.
One video broadcast widely on Israeli media, purportedly filmed on board, showed a passenger saying one of the pilots was seriously injured and the other was slightly hurt, after one had been stabbed.
Tabuk Airport said assistance was provided to passengers in the terminal and it was co-ordinating with flydubai to arrange a replacement aircraft.
After departing Dubai International Airport, the plane was diverted over Jordanian airspace towards Saudi Arabia and transmitted two emergency signals, the flight-tracking website Flightradar24 said.
It descended from 33,000ft to 17,000ft within a minute, before circling near the Jordanian border. The Boeing 737 transmitted another general emergency signal before landing at Tabuk Airport in north-western Saudi Arabia, flight-tracking data showed.
Mr Netanyahu also held consultations “following concerns over an aviation incident”, his office said in a statement.
“The incident is under control and all measures are now being implemented to safely return the Israeli passengers to Israel,” the office said. The Israeli army said it was conducting a “situational assessment”. Israel's Mossad and the Shin Bet are involved in the investigations, a source told The National.
Flydubai started daily flights between Tel Aviv and Dubai in late 2020 with daily flights and has since ramped up operations to 70 weekly flights, according to the airline’s website.
Flights to the Middle East are gradually resuming after being disrupted by the regional war. Air Canada has extended the suspension of its flights to Tel Aviv and Dubai until the end of March 2027. Air France has meanwhile resumed its regular flights to Tel Aviv and Beirut, while flights to Riyadh and Dubai are suspended until October 24.
Political backdrop
The news quickly became politicised in Israel, with members of the opposition accusing Mr Netanyahu’s allies of trying to exploit the incident before next month's election.
Mr Netanyahu was widely criticised for issuing a warning on Tuesday that there were signs Israel’s enemies were preparing for an attack, without providing details.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid, who on Tuesday night attended a security briefing with Mr Netanyahu after his surprise warning, said “nothing that even resembles this morning's plane incident appeared in last night's security update with the Prime Minister. Not similar, not reminiscent, not even hinted at.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s National Security Minister, called for more military action against the nation's enemies.
Plane hijackings have been increasingly rare in recent decades as governments developed international protocols and regulations to increase safety in the air. Israel has some of the strictest security measures for flights following a spate of attempted and actual hijackings in the 1970s.
