A commercial plane travelling from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Israel was been forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, after an apparent brawl between its pilots prompted distress signals that briefly raised fears of an attempted hijacking.
The FlyDubai flight was over Jordan when it diverted to Saudi Arabia, transmitting three emergency signals, one of which indicated a possible unlawful interference.
The plane dipped dramatically during the reported fight, descending about 16,000ft in just two minutes.
Israeli officials scrambled fighter jets, fearful of a possible hijacking attempt on a plane containing dozens of Israelis, and the plane landed at at a civil-military airport in Tabuk in north-western Saudi Arabia.
Israeli government agency officials said it appeared that the pilot and co-pilot had gotten into a fight and one of them sent a distress signal before the plane landed.
Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv signalled an emergency lands at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia. Graphic: Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu via Getty Images
They spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose what they knew about the episode. The cause of the clash was not immediately clear.
Passengers described a melee that left at least one crew member bleeding and that ended when some of them stepped in. Social media videos that appeared to be from the plane’s cabin show a wounded man and others on board covered in blood.
The pilot and co-pilot were hospitalised in Saudi Arabia after sustaining injuries, according to a statement from officials at Tabuk airport.
A passenger told the Jerusalem Post that one pilot stabbed another and tried to force him out of the cockpit, prompting other Israelis to rush into the cockpit and subdue the attacker as the plane began to plunge.
It was not immediately possible to verify those reports. Pictures of a passenger with blood on their shirt were published by Israeli media.
A spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister’s office initially said that the flight diversion was not because of a hijack attempt; authorities later said they were investigating the incident.
Israeli media quoted anonymous officials saying they were investigating whether one of the pilots had tried to crash the plane in an apparent attempted suicide, before being stopped by members of the flight crew. The officials also said they were considering the possibility that the incident was an attempt to attack Israelis, but investigations were still continuing.
The head of the Israeli military, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, postponed his planned visit to the US next week over the incident, where he was meant to have a meeting with US joint chiefs of staff and the head of US Central Command.
All passengers were safe, while both the captain and the co-pilot were taken to hospital for treatment, a statement by a Saudi aviation authority said. The Israeli air force was waiting for permission from Saudi Arabia to fly the stranded passengers back to Israel.
The circumstances of the brawl between the pilots were unclear, with passengers’ recounting confusing moments and blood being spilt.
Yasmin Abu Kaiss, whose daughter was on the flight, told Reuters her daughter said she had heard screaming and a man with a knife had put a pilot on the floor, and that there was blood everywhere.
The incident came just days after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, warned there were indications an attack would be carried out during Israel’s October elections. The Israeli military, quoted by Israeli media, said that they had no intelligence that an attack was being planned on Israel.
Israel experienced a series of hijackings and attacks on planes by Palestinian militants in the 1960s and 1970s, but has not experienced anything similar in decades. Israel maintains some of the strictest airport security procedures in the world, including security checks before passengers board Israel-bound flights.
Flights between Dubai and Israel started after the two countries normalised ties in 2020. Israel does not have diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, but in 2025 landed a plane in Riyadh because of a medical emergency.
Flydubai confirmed that flight FZ 1073 en route to Ben Gurion experienced an incident and landed safely in Tabuk on Wednesday. “Our teams are working closely with the relevant authorities,” the carrier said. “Further updates will be issued as additional confirmed details become available.”
Israeli media reported that a later flydubai flight heading to Tel Aviv turned around in mid-air back towards Dubai after the incident.
================
A commercial plane travelling from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Israel was forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, briefly raising concerns about a possible hijacking and prompting Israel to scramble warplanes.
Israeli media, citing security officials, said the incident stemmed from a feud between the plane’s two pilots, and everyone on board was safe. The plane landed in Tabuk, a civilian and military base in the kingdom.
The FlyDubai plane had transmitted an emergency alert, according to publicly available flight tracking information.
About two and a half hours after departing from Dubai, it abruptly descended from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet within a minute, before making an erratic circle close to the Jordanian border and eventually landing in Tabuk about an hour later, according to FlightRadar24.
A regional official briefed on the incident said a fight broke out in the cockpit and apparently involved the pilots. It was not immediately clear what had caused the fight, the official said.
Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv signalled an emergency lands at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia. Graphic: Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu via Getty Images
A second official confirmed that Israel had scrambled warplanes, fearing a hijacking of a plane carrying dozens of its citizens. Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has warned in recent days of unspecified, escalated security threats.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was still under investigation.
Netanyahu’s office later said the situation was under control and Israel was working to bring the passengers home.
Emergency landings for personnel reasons are rare yet not unheard of. In 2022, two Air France pilots were suspended after fighting in the cockpit on a Geneva-Paris flight, though it did not have to be diverted and landed as planned.
Passengers told an Israeli TV station by phone that they heard shouts from those sitting more forward on the plane who heard the altercation between the pilots, and the plane dipped steeply before landing in Saudi Arabia.
They also said that all the passengers are staying on the plane and that there is a heavy presence of Saudi security forces surrounding them.
FlyDubai later confirmed that flight FZ 1073 en route to Ben Gurion experienced an incident and landed safely in Tabuk on Wednesday.
FlyDubai confirmed that flight FZ 1073 en route to Ben Gurion experienced an incident and landed safely in Tabuk. Photograph: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP via Getty Images
“Our teams are working closely with the relevant authorities,” the carrier said. “Further updates will be issued as additional confirmed details become available.”
Flight-tracking data indicated that the plane was a Boeing 737 Max 8.
FlyDubai is the lower-cost sister carrier of Emirates airlines. The UAE has become a popular vacation destination for Israeli tourists since the countries normalised ties in 2020. – AP