A pilot on a FlyDubai flight stabbed a fellow pilot and then apparently attempted to crash the aircraft carrying dozens of Israelis, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Boeing 737 MAX 8, operating as flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, was carrying more than 150 passengers when it issued the emergency squawk code 7500 while flying over Saudi Arabia, roughly two-and-a-half hours into the journey.
Passengers subdue attacker
Passengers and crew on board subdued the attacker, and the plane eventually made an emergency landing at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia. The Israeli prime minister said Saudi police had arrested the pilot on the runway.
"I salute these heroes who showed exceptional resourcefulness and courage," Mr Netanyahu said in a statement on Wednesday (30 September). "They saved many lives and prevented a major disaster."
Defence minister calls it 'jihadist terror attack'
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said early indications show that one of the pilots had intended to crash the plane, killing everyone on board. He described the incident as an "attempted jihadist terror attack" and praised Israeli passengers for overpowering the pilot.
After the emergency alert was activated, the flight abruptly descended from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet in about a minute. It then made an erratic circle close to the Jordanian border and eventually landed in Tabuk about an hour later, according to Flightradar24.
Injuries and response
Video footage circulating on social media and reviewed by The Associated Press shows two men on the floor of the plane with bloody wounds. Two people appear to be providing emergency medical treatment, while two others guard the cockpit. "We are guarding the pilot," one person says in Hebrew. In another video, passengers weep and cry out in distress as the aircraft shakes.
The aircraft's captain and first officer were injured and taken to hospital, according to a statement from the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk carried by Saudi state-run Alekhbariya television. Passengers were receiving medical attention from local authorities, according to a regional official.
A spokesman for FlyDubai said "an altercation occurred in the flight deck" of flight FZ1073. The aircraft was "successfully secured by on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight", who diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk Airport, it added in a statement. All passengers and crew are safe and accounted for, and the airline has deployed two replacement aircraft to Tabuk "to relieve the passengers and crew". The operator added that this incident has no impact on other scheduled flights across the FlyDubai network.
"At this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation." The airline urged people to refrain from "premature speculation" and said its immediate priority was the safety, health, and wellbeing of all passengers and crew members.
