FlyDubai flight FZ1073 to Tel Aviv lands in Saudi Arabia after cockpit fight

A FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv was diverted to Tabuk Airport in northeastern Saudi Arabia on 30 September after a fight between the pilots, Israeli officials told local media. Flight FZ1073, carrying around 150 people, most of them Israeli, had been due to land at Ben-Gurion Airport. The plane signalled an emergency two hours into the journey and landed safely, with all passengers accounted for.aljazeera.com+1

The diversion matters because the emergency signals briefly raised the possibility of a hijacking of a plane carrying dozens of Israeli citizens, prompting Israel to scramble fighter jets. The Israeli prime minister's office said the incident was not believed to have been a hijacking. The account of a cockpit fight, reported by Israeli media citing Israeli officials, points to a crew dispute rather than an attack from outside the aircraft.abcnews.com

Why the diversion mattered

Israeli media, quoting Israeli defence officials, reported that the emergency signal was thought to have been issued following an altercation between the pilot and co-pilot. A regional official briefed on the incident said a fight broke out in the cockpit and apparently involved pilots, adding that it was not immediately clear what had caused the fight. A second official confirmed Israel had scrambled warplanes, fearing a hijacking of a plane carrying dozens of its citizens. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was still under investigation.

The Israeli prime minister's office said the situation was under control and Israel was working to bring the passengers home. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held urgent consultations on the incident, and the Israeli air force dispatched fighter jets in response. Israeli Chief of the General Staff Eyal Zamir held an assessment of the incident with senior officers, the Israeli military said in a statement.

Flight tracking website Flightradar24 said the Flydubai plane took off from Dubai International Airport early on Wednesday morning and signalled an emergency code two hours into the journey. Minutes later it switched to a code used to report a hijacking, but was later turned back to the general emergency signal. Data from Flightradar24 shows a rapid descent for the plane over Saudi Arabia, just two hours after take-off.

What the flight tracking showed

The descent was steep: the plane dropped more than 17,000 feet (over 5,000 m) in less than two minutes, just after 05:21 UTC (06:21 BST). At 05:40, the flight briefly entered Jordanian airspace before looping back into Saudi Arabia minutes later, where it then began its descent for landing. Passengers told local media they feared for their lives as the plane started to drop during the incident.

Flydubai confirmed the flight "experienced an incident while en route" and said its teams were working closely with the relevant authorities. The airline said the plane landed safely at Tabuk airport and that all passengers are safe and accounted for, with more details to be shared later. Tabuk is a civilian and military base in Saudi Arabia, and the flight was due to land at Ben-Gurion Airport before the diversion.

What is confirmed is that the plane diverted, landed safely, and that Israeli officials ruled out a hijacking. What is reported but not independently established is the cockpit fight itself: Israeli media attributed it to Israeli defence officials and security officials, and a regional official briefed on the incident described a fight in the cockpit without saying what caused it. The official investigation was continuing.

What remains unconfirmed

The incident follows a rare precedent in aviation. In 2022, two Air France pilots were suspended after fighting in the cockpit on a Geneva-Paris flight, though that plane did not have to be diverted and landed as planned. Emergency landings for personnel reasons are rare yet not unheard of, according to the account of that earlier case.

FlyDubai is the lower-cost sister carrier of Emirates airlines. The United Arab Emirates has become a popular vacation destination for Israeli tourists since the countries normalised ties in 2020. Israel has not experienced a hijacking in decades but maintains some of the strictest airport security in the world, which explains the speed of the military response to the emergency signals.

Flydubai said updates will be issued as further details become available, and Israeli officials said the situation was under control with work under way to bring the passengers home. The next development to watch is the airline's promised further details and the outcome of the investigation into what caused the fight between the pilot and co-pilot.bbc.co.uk