A FLIGHT from Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Tel Aviv, Israel, was diverted to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, September 30, after one pilot stabbed the other and “apparently tried to crash the plane,” Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said.
The pilot was arrested and was being questioned by Saudi authorities, Netanyahu added.
The plane’s captain and first officer were injured and taken to hospital, the company that owns the Saudi Arabian airport said, while the airline, Flydubai, confirmed all passengers were safe and accounted for.
Israeli Defence Minister, Israel Katz, has called the incident an “attempted jihadist terror attack.”
According to the BBC reports, Flydubai’s flight FZ1073 took off from Dubai International Airport at 03:05 GMT (07:05 local time) en route to Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel.
The flight was carrying at least 150 people, with Netanyahu saying “almost all” passengers were Israeli.
Data from flight tracking website, Flightrader24, showed a rapid descent for the plane over Saudi Arabia around two and a half hours after take-off, dropping over 17,000 feet (over 5,000m) in less than two minutes at around 05:21.
Minutes later, the plane signalled an emergency code, squawk 7700, before switching it to a squawk 7500 code, reporting a hijacking.
At 05:40, the plane,- which had briefly entered Jordanian airspace, looped back into Saudi Arabia, where it later started its manual descent for landing.
Less than an hour later, the plane returned to squawk 7700.
Initial local media reports cited Israeli officials as saying a fight had broken out between two pilots.
But, speaking on Wednesday following the incident, Netanyahu confirmed later reports that one pilot had stabbed the other before “apparently trying to crash” the plane.
He said an Israeli passenger told him “the plane went into a spin and began to descend” before the passenger and a crew member broke into the cockpit and overpowered the “pilot who had carried out the stabbing.”
The plane was diverted to Tabuk Airport in northeastern Saudi Arabia and touched down at 06:58, according to location data.
Yasmin Abukasis told Reuters that her daughter, who was on the flight, said a man holding a knife had forced one of the pilots onto the floor, and that there was blood everywhere.
Speaking from Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, she said her daughter phoned her to say she heard screaming on the plane as a pilot called for help, adding that two other pilots took control of the plane as other passengers ran towards a man who had a knife.
“The plane started to lose control. So, all the people, they scream, they think they are going,” Abukasis told AP.
Passenger Zvika Meness told Israeli public broadcaster, Kan News, that his young daughter was in the toilet, and his wife accompanying her, when they heard shouting coming from the cockpit.
An additional crew member who was also a pilot went into the cockpit, and that was when they saw the stabbing, Meness said.
He said he and two other people restrained the attacker, adding: “We jumped on him; three of us jumped on him forcefully, and we tied him up with his own zip ties and with the multimedia headphones.
“That is how we neutralised him, resourcefulness, and that’s it.”
Another pilot who was in the passenger cabin then went in to help land the plane.
Almog Itali, who was also on board the flight, told media one of the pilots who landed the aircraft was British and the other European, although he did not provide a specific nationality.
One female passenger described the “very stressful” moment people realised the plane was descending. “We understood the pilots lost control,” she told Israeli newspaper, Israel Hayom.
“There are people here with shirts covered in blood,” she said, adding: “Now, we are fine and want to return home.”
Meness also said “there are children and families here who have been through a very severe, highly traumatic event.”
Shortly after the incident, the Israeli and Saudi Arabian air forces dispatched fighter jets, while Netanyahu held urgent consultations.
Speaking later on Wednesday, Netanyahu called the situation “a very serious security incident,” adding that Israeli security forces were “maintaining close contact with the relevant authorities to ensure the continued safety of the passengers.”
He added: “I salute these heroes who demonstrated extraordinary resourcefulness and courage. They saved many lives and prevented a major disaster.”
Flydubai, meanwhile, said “an altercation occurred in the flight deck” and the flight was “successfully secured by on-duty Flydubai crew travelling on the flight, who diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk airport.”
The airline said two replacement aircraft were sent to Tabuk to relieve the passengers and crew, and the incident had no impact on other scheduled operations.
The repatriation flight carrying passengers left Tabuk at 17:40 local time (14:40 GMT) and arrived in Tel Aviv at around 18:40 local time (15:40 GMT).
The spokesperson added: “Our immediate priority is to ensure the ongoing safety, health and wellbeing of all passengers and crew members involved in this incident and support the official investigation.”
Saudi Arabia had turned down a request by Israel to allow its planes to bring back Israeli passengers from the flight, two security sources said on Wednesday.
The request was made to allow Israeli military planes to bring back Israelis from Saudi Arabia, which has no diplomatic relations with Israel, the sources said. Saudi Arabia’s government media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Israeli air force was preparing to send Super Hercules planes to pick up Israeli passengers, one of the sources said, as the passengers were set to continue their journey on Flydubai aircraft, the airline said.
United States (US) President, Donald Trump, has been pushing for Saudi Arabia to join the US-brokered Abraham Accords under which several Arab states established ties with Israel.
The kingdom has long rejected joining the Accords without a pathway toward Palestinian statehood.
A senior Saudi official on Wednesday denied reports of a meeting between Saudi and Israeli officials, after Israeli media reported that Netanyahu had met Middle Eastern officials, including a Saudi official, during his recent visit to the UAE.
