What happened on board the rerouted flydubai plane?
A flydubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft is pictured on the tarmac after landing at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport in Lod on September 30, 2026.
On Wednesday, a Flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv from Dubai made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. The sudden descent and emergency signals indicated that one of the pilots attempted to crash the plane to kill everyone on board. The aircraft plummeted from nearly 34,000 feet to less than 17,000 feet within two hours, as reported by Flightradar24.
Israeli authorities scrambled fighter jets in response to initial fears of a hijacking. The plane began to spin out of control, according to passenger Miryam Shira Ohayon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that one pilot had stabbed the other in an attempt to seize control of the plane. Passengers broke into the cockpit and overpowered the hijacking pilot.
Another crew member was given command to fly the plane. The flydubai plane landed in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, at 9:45 am (0645 GMT) with the injured captain and copilot taken to the hospital. Passengers shared footage from the plane, including footage of an Israeli man with a wound on his hand pleading for help. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the passengers as "heroes" who prevented a major disaster.
The co-pilot was arrested by Saudi authorities and is currently being interrogated. Netanyahu stated that the incident was under control and that a new plane was dispatched to take the passengers to their original destination, Tel Aviv.
Written by urgent.news from IOL's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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