It emerged later that the incident on Wednesday was caused by a fight between the pilots of FZ1073. A flydubai commercial flight, on its way from Dubai to Tel Aviv, sent two distress signals, one of which was related to a possible hijacking of the aircraft.
Israeli officials have now told NDTV that one of the pilot was from the UAE and his co-pilot was Omani. The officials further said that the Omani co-pilot stabbed Emirati pilot and tried to take control of the plane. The official also said that they are not ruling out the possibility of a terrorist attack.
Israeli media had earlier reported that one of the pilots was of Russian origin, and the other was from Ukraine, but Israeli officials have ruled that out. The flight later landed safely in Tabuk, a civilian and military base in Saudi Arabia. The incident occurred about 2.5 hours after takeoff, according to Flight Radar. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held an emergency meeting as Israeli media reported there were 180 Israeli passengers onboard.
“The incident is under control, and all measures are currently being deployed in order to return the Israeli passengers safely to Israel,” his office said on X.
