LAHORE MIRROR (REUTERS) — Two pilots were wounded after they reportedly fought on board the plane they were flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv, and which was forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
The flydubai plane landed in Tabuk at 9:45 am (11:45am PKT) and its “captain and copilot were found to have injuries and were transported to hospital”, a statement from the company operating the airport said.
The low-cost carrier had earlier said flight FZ 1073 “experienced an incident while en route”. “The aircraft has landed safely in Tabuk Airport (TUU) and all passengers are safe and accounted for.”
Several Israeli media outlets reported that a fight had broken out between the plane’s pilots, reportedly causing a distress signal to be activated.
Israeli media also reported that two other pilots were flying on the plane as passengers, and that they had taken over the controls to carry out the emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
Neither the airline nor authorities of the countries involved provided details on what happened on board or on the pilots’ nationalities, but some Israeli media said one was Omani and the other Emirati.
According to data from the Flightradar website, the aircraft suddenly lost altitude during the flight, dropping from nearly 34,000 feet at 05:21am GMT to less than 17,000 feet at 05:22am GMT (10:22am PKT).
The flight from Dubai diverted over Jordanian airspace towards Saudi Arabia, transmitting a general emergency signal before transmitting another emergency signal that indicates a possible unlawful interference several minutes later, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24.
The Boeing 737 plane then again transmitted the general emergency signal before landing at Tabuk airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, the website said.
There were 180 Israelis on board the plane, according to Israel’s far-right national security minister Ben Gvir, who claimed the incident involved a “terrorist”.
‘Going down very fast’
An AFP correspondent in Tabuk, where the plane landed, saw heavy security near the airport, with several police vehicles and an ambulance parked at the terminal. Access to the terminal remained open.
At Ben Gurion airport, families gathered to await the return of their loved ones.
Yasmin Abukasis, mother of passenger Miryam Shira Ohayon, told AFP that her daughter called her from Saudi Arabia: “She said one pilot tried to kill the other pilot with a knife. They heard shouting”.
Another passenger went to the cockpit “and saw a lot of blood. She started screaming ‘come help’ and some people went in and caught the guy”, she added.
“All the while, the plane started going down very fast. People thought they were going to die.”
She added that two other pilots in the back later took over the controls.
Israeli media, citing anonymous sources, reported that the passengers on board had stepped in to separate the two pilots during their altercation, publishing photos of a passenger with a bloodied T-shirt.
Channel 12 reported that authorities were investigating whether or not one of the pilots had attempted a possible suicide by trying to crash the plane, with the other pilot apparently intervening to prevent the crash.
In a video from inside the plane that was reposted by Israeli social media users, one passenger, blood dripping from an open wound on his head, pleaded for assistance and said they were descending into Saudi Arabia, with which Israel has no diplomatic relations.
“We are here during an attack on the plane. We just subdued the terrorists and are preparing to land,” the man said in Hebrew.
