A Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv was forced to divert to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after a violent incident unfolded inside the cockpit, sending the aircraft into a sudden descent and triggering fears of a possible hijacking.
Flight FZ1073 eventually landed safely at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk, but the moments before the diversion were far from routine.
Officials now say a physical confrontation broke out between the two pilots while the Boeing 737 was in the air. One Israeli official told Reuters that the pilots transmitted emergency signals after getting into an altercation with each other.
What caused the confrontation remains unclear.
The incident quickly became much more serious because of what happened next.
Plane suddenly descended as emergency signals appeared
About two and a half hours after leaving Dubai, the aircraft sent an emergency alert, according to flight-tracking data cited by The Associated Press.
The aircraft then dropped sharply from around 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet in roughly a minute, before making an unusual turn near the Jordanian border and heading toward Saudi Arabia.
Reuters, citing Flightradar24, reported an even sharper section of the descent in the flight data, showing the aircraft losing nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds before the first emergency transmission.
The flight initially transmitted a general emergency signal. Several minutes later, another signal associated with possible unlawful interference appeared.
That second alert immediately raised the possibility of a hijacking.
Israeli authorities responded as though the threat could be genuine. Fighter jets were scrambled and senior security officials were brought into consultations while authorities tried to understand what was happening aboard the aircraft.
Three Israeli security officials told Reuters that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was informed about the incident. Israel’s military chief Eyal Zamir also held a situational assessment with the air force commander and other senior officials.
Netanyahu’s office later said the situation was under control and that the incident was not believed to have been a hijacking.
Officials say fight broke out between the pilots
The first clearer explanation emerged after the aircraft was safely on the ground.
An Israeli official told Reuters that the emergency signals had been transmitted after the two pilots became involved in a physical altercation.
A separate regional official cited by AP also said there had been a fight in the cockpit involving the pilots, adding:
âThe crew have been questioned as part of the investigation.â
The official did not say whether anyone had been detained or what had started the confrontation.
AP later reported that one of the pilots was believed to have been armed with a knife during the struggle.
The aircraft’s captain and first officer were both injured and taken to hospital after landing, according to a statement from Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport carried by Saudi state television.
That detail gives a clearer indication of how serious the confrontation became, although authorities have still not released a complete account of what happened inside the cockpit.
Passengers also described hearing shouting from the front of the aircraft shortly before the sudden descent.
Some told Israel’s Channel 12 that people seated closer to the cockpit could hear the confrontation before the plane dipped sharply.
Other passenger accounts circulating in Israeli media have alleged that one pilot was stabbed during the struggle. Those accounts broadly match the later reports of injuries, but investigators have not yet released a detailed timeline establishing exactly who attacked whom or how the confrontation began.
Distress call came before emergency landing in Tabuk
Authorities in Tabuk said the aircraft made a distress call at approximately 8:44 a.m. local time.
It landed safely at around 9:45 a.m., roughly an hour later.
Flydubai confirmed the diversion but has so far avoided describing the confrontation in detail.
âFlydubai flight FZ1073 experienced an incident while en route to Ben Gurion Airport and landed safely at Tabuk Airport.â
The airline added:
âOur teams are working closely with the relevant authorities.â
Flydubai also confirmed that passengers were safe and accounted for.
The airline has not publicly explained what caused the pilots’ confrontation or confirmed some of the more dramatic claims that have circulated since the emergency.
Israeli officials, meanwhile, said an investigation was continuing into whether the incident may have involved an attempt to deliberately endanger the aircraft or its passengers.
That possibility remains under investigation and should not yet be treated as an established conclusion.
The flight was carrying dozens of Israeli passengers, making the appearance of an unlawful-interference signal particularly sensitive for Israeli authorities.
Saudi Arabia and Israel do not have formal diplomatic relations, although Saudi Arabia has permitted Israeli-linked flights to use its airspace since lifting longstanding restrictions in 2022. Emergency landings involving Israeli passengers have also occurred in the kingdom before.
The Flydubai incident comes amid wider scrutiny of aviation safety and emergency response procedures. In a separate recent incident, an air traffic control failure at Prestwick caused widespread flight disruption, showing how quickly an unexpected aviation problem can affect passengers and authorities far beyond a single aircraft.
For passengers aboard FZ1073, however, this emergency appears to have developed inside the cockpit itself.
The aircraft’s sudden descent, the emergency alerts and the scramble of Israeli fighter jets all happened within a rapidly developing situation that authorities initially had little information about.
The aircraft ultimately landed safely, but investigators are now trying to answer the central questions left behind: what caused the confrontation, how the pilots were injured and what exactly happened during the aircraft’s sudden descent.
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