A commercial flight traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after an altercation in the cockpit. One of the pilots of the Boeing 737 Max stabbed the other pilot, and it appears he intended to crash the flight, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, the BBC reported.
Netanyahu called the incident a “very serious security incident,” adding that almost all passengers onboard the flight were Israeli.
“I spoke with one of the Israeli passengers. He told me that the plane went into a spin and began to descend. He told me that, somehow, he managed to break into the cockpit with one of the crew members and, together, they overpowered the pilot who had carried out the stabbing while he was attempting to sabotage the aircraft’s systems,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
Cluster2 Airports, which operates at several airports across Saudi Arabia, told NBC News that both the captain and first officer of FlyDubai Flight FZ 1073 were injured in the incident and taken to a hospital.
Two Israeli jets were scrambled to intercept the flight in response to the incident.
“At this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation… We urge all parties to refrain from premature speculation while authorities gather the facts,” the airline said.
A passenger told FoxNews that the co-pilot stabbed the captain during an altercation in the cockpit, but added that there are “many different accounts” of what happened. The passenger’s account hasn’t been confirmed by the airline or authorities.
An Israeli official said the crew is being questioned as part of the investigation, which is ongoing, and Israel believes there may have been an attempt to attack Israelis, according to the Associated Press.
The Boeing 737 Max switched its transponder code to 7700, a code to signal illegal interference with an aircraft. Publicly available data shows the aircraft plunged from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet in about a minute, approximately two minutes into the flight. The aircraft then made an erratic circle near the Jordanian border before landing in Tabuk.
Video from onboard the plane showed two people who appeared to be covered in blood lying on the floor with a crowd around them, NBC reported.
Pilot attacked another pilot on Israel-bound flight that emergency landed in Saudi Arabia: report
