Media representatives gathered with passengers at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on Wednesday after a Tel Aviv-bound flydubai plane was forced to land in Saudi Arabia following an “incident”, the airline said.
Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
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Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
TEL AVIV, Israel, and RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a pilot stabbed another pilot on a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv on Wednesday as he tried to crash the plane, staffed mostly by Israeli passengers, in what Israel calls an attempted terrorist attack.
The prime minister said a passenger described to him how, as the plane “went into a spin and started to dive”, the passenger and a crew member broke into the cockpit and overpowered the pilot who carried out the attack.
Flydubai said in a statement that an “altercation occurred in the cockpit” of flight FZ 1073, traveling from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Tel Aviv. The flight crew secured the plane and diverted it to make an emergency landing at Tabuk Airport, Saudi Arabia. No passengers were injured.
Netanyahu said Saudi authorities had arrested the alleged attacker and would question him. Saudi Arabia has not confirmed this.
A statement from Cluster2, the Saudi company that manages the country’s airports, said the captain and first officer, the co-pilot, were being treated for their injuries at a hospital. “The relevant authorities are conducting the necessary investigations into this incident,” the airport said.
Flydubai said it sent planes to bring passengers from Saudi Arabia to Tel Aviv. The airline said the motives for the incident were unknown and still under formal investigation.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called it an “attempted jihadist terrorist attack.”
This is a developing story that may be updated.
Itay Stern contributed reporting from Tel Aviv.
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