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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video address on Wednesday that the Israeli government believes that a FlyDubai pilot tried to crash a commercial plane en route to Tel Aviv after stabbing their co-pilot.
The flight from the United Arab Emirates diverted to Saudi Arabia after transmitting emergency signals earlier in the day.
“According to the preliminary information in our possession, the terrorist had one intention: to crash the aircraft with all its passengers aboard,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
Two Israeli officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to brief reporters, had earlier told Reuters that the government had assessed that the incident was an attempted “terror attack.”
Tabuk Airport, in Saudi Arabia, said both pilots had been hospitalized after sustaining injuries.
Netanyahu said the pilot alleged to have committed the stabbing was being questioned by Saudi authorities, though it wasn’t clear if that was taking place in hospital.
A flight travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv was diverted to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after a fight in the cockpit broke out between the pilots. The FlyDubai plane sharply dove thousands of feet, triggering hijacking fears.
Netanyahu said he spoke with one of the Israeli passengers on the plane, who relayed that they responded by entering the cockpit, along with a crew member. The alleged attacker was subdued, Netanyahu said, with a separate crew member managing to stabilize the plane.
FlyDubai Flight FZ 1073, from Dubai to Tel Aviv, diverted over Jordanian airspace toward Saudi Arabia, transmitting a general emergency signal and then another emergency signal that indicated possible unlawful interference several minutes later, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
The emergency signals triggered a major security response in Israel, which has no official diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, where the plane landed.
The incident highlighted the potential risks on a route that has become popular among Israeli nationals since the U.A.E. and Israel normalized ties six years ago. It also comes as Israel holds elections on Oct. 27, with security among the top issues in the wake of the deadly Hamas-led mass attack of Oct. 7, 2023.
The aircraft’s data appeared to show that it had suddenly and rapidly descended by nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds before the first emergency signal, Flightradar24 said.
Israeli media reported that around 150 Israeli passengers were on board the Boeing 737 plane.
All passengers safe
In a statement, FlyDubai said that two replacement aircraft were being deployed to Tabuk to transport the passengers and crew, but cautioned against early “speculation” about the incident.
“At this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation. We urge all parties to refrain from premature speculation while authorities gather the facts,” the statement read.
The U.A.E. had yet to comment on the incident.
Yasmin Abu Kasis said her daughter Miriam, who was among the passengers on the flight, had told her that she had heard screaming and that a man holding a knife had forced one of the pilots onto the floor, and that there was blood everywhere.
Israeli media published a photo purportedly taken from inside the plane, which appeared to show a passenger’s blood-soaked shirt. Reuters could not immediately verify the image.
In a statement, the Israeli prime minister’s office said the situation was “under control” and that all measures were being taken to bring the Israeli passengers back to Israel.
FlyDubai is the lower-cost sister carrier of Emirates airlines. It operates daily return flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv and normally uses airspace over Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
The low-cost carrier’s fleet relies entirely on variants of the 737, a twin-engine, single-aisle aircraft that is widely used by airlines around the world. It has nearly 100 of the planes, including 69 of the Max 8 variant.
Though rare, there have been alleged and confirmed incidents of pilot murder-suicide before. It was concluded that a Germanwings pilot deliberately crashed a plane in the French Alps in 2015, killing all 150 people on the aircraft.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board concluded that an EgyptAir pilot in 1999 downed a plane into the Atlantic Ocean after taking off from New York — a finding that the Egyptian government disputed.
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