Israel-bound flight diverted to Saudi Arabia after brawl between pilots, Israeli official says
Israeli officials said the emergency was triggered by a cockpit fight, and 2 fighter jets were scrambled as the plane carried about 180 passengers.
- Flydubai Flight FZ1073, en route from Dubai to Tel Aviv with approximately 180 passengers, was forced to divert and make an emergency landing at Tabuk Airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia following a physical fight between its pilots.
- While flying over Jordanian airspace near the Saudi border, the aircraft transmitted a general emergency squawk code before briefly issuing code 7500—the international signal for a hijacking or unlawful onboard interference.
- The emergency transmissions prompted Israeli Air Force fighter jets to scramble and led Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convene urgent security assessments before Israeli officials confirmed the event was an internal crew dispute rather than a terrorist hijacking.
- Reports from news agencies and passenger accounts indicated that an argument between the Russian and Ukrainian pilots escalated into a violent confrontation inside the cockpit, requiring cabin crew and passengers to intervene.
- The Boeing 737 aircraft landed safely in Saudi Arabia with all passengers and crew accounted for, marking a rare emergency diversion of a Tel Aviv-bound commercial airliner into Saudi territory despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties between the two nations.
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Passengers on a Flydubai flight thought they were being kidnapped when they felt the sudden descent of the plane they were traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv this Wednesday early in the morning local Eastern hour. But in reality the reason for the swings was a fight between ... Continue reading "Terror on a FlyDubai plane: a "violent" fight between a Russian pilot and another Ukrainian causes turbulence and an emergency landing"
According to several sources, there was a fight in the cabin that apparently involved the pilots. The reason for the dispute has not been clarified, but there was concern about a possible kidnapping.
The passenger plane made a U-turn after losing a significant amount of altitude.
A plane en route from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Israel made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after sending a distress signal. The flight change was not caused by a hijacking, but by a fight between the pilots, an Israeli official said.
Flydubai's Dubai to Tel Aviv route triggered a high-level distress signal, prompting Israeli fighter jets to be deployed.
(Cairo=Yonhap News) Correspondent Kim Sang-hoon = A commercial passenger plane departing from Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and heading to Tel Aviv, Israel, made an emergency call due to a dispute between the pilots...
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