Flydubai’s flight FDB1073, on its way from Dubai to Israel on Wednesday morning with a reported 180 passengers, barely avoided an attempt by a pilot to crash it and made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
According to media reports, the plane issued codes indicating a hijacking or unlawful interference two hours into the flight over Saudi Arabia. Israeli authorities were unable to make contact with the plane during the incident. Israeli Air Force fighter jets were scrambled to intercept it amid fears of a hijacking.
Eventually contact was made with the plane and it landed safely at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia. An Omani copilot, suspected of trying to take over the plane in order to crash it, is interrogated.
A second team of pilots in civilian clothes onboard the plane together with passengers reportedly overpowered the pilot and prevented a disaster. The first photos to emerge from the incident show passengers with blood on their clothes.
A passenger on the flydubai plane describes harrowing scenes when the plane dropped height sharply and failed to maintain a steady altitude. “We heard screams on the plane. Then they opened the cockpit and we saw blood, and someone had stabbed the pilot with a pocketknife.”
Flydubai is sending a second plane to Tabruk Airport to fly passengers all the way to Israel.
