Riyadh-Abu Dhabi, Sept. 30 (SANA) A flydubai flight carrying 180 Israeli passengers from Dubai to Ben Gurion Airport made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after an in-flight incident left the captain and co-pilot injured, according to Saudi airport authorities.
Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk said air traffic controllers received a distress call from flydubai flight FZ1073 requesting an emergency landing. The captain and co-pilot were taken to hospital for treatment, while passengers were accommodated in the terminal as the airline arranged a replacement aircraft.
Flydubai described the episode as an in-flight incident that prompted a precautionary diversion to Tabuk and said all passengers were safe.
Details surrounding the incident remained unclear, however, with sharply differing accounts emerging from Israeli officials, media reports and passengers.
Agence France-Presse quoted Israeli government minister Itamar Ben-Gvir as alleging that a “security incident” involved an attempt to bring down the aircraft and kill the Israelis on board.
Israeli media reported that an altercation between the two pilots led to the activation of a distress signal, initially raising fears of a possible hijacking.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that authorities were investigating whether the captain had attempted to deliberately crash the aircraft before the co-pilot intervened. The account had not been independently verified.
A passenger separately told AFP that the co-pilot had stabbed the captain and attempted to bring down the aircraft while it was flying over Jordan. Another passenger said other pilots traveling aboard the flight took control of the aircraft and diverted it to Saudi Arabia.
Those passenger accounts could not be independently verified, and the official Saudi airport statement did not specify how the two pilots were injured.
Flydubai, a Dubai-based carrier founded in 2008, began commercial operations in 2009.
N.J/ABD
