Co-Pilot Stabs Captain and 'Apparently Tried to Crash' Tel Aviv Flight
A flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv carrying at least 150 people, almost all of them Israeli, was diverted to Saudi Arabia after one pilot stabbed the other and “apparently tried to crash the plane”, Benjamin Netanyahu said. Both the captain and the first officer were injured and taken to hospital. The pilot accused of the attack was arrested and is being questioned by Saudi authorities. All passengers are safe and accounted for.
The flight data tells the story in transponder codes. Flydubai FZ1073 left Dubai at five past three in the morning and, about two and a half hours later, dropped more than seventeen thousand feet in under two minutes. Minutes after that it signalled the general emergency code 7700, then switched to 7500 — the code reserved for a hijacking — briefly crossed into Jordanian airspace, looped back into Saudi Arabia and began a manual descent into Tabuk, prompting Israel to deploy warplanes. The airline’s account is narrower than the Prime Minister’s. It describes an altercation on the flight deck, says the aircraft was secured by on-duty crew travelling on board, and asks everyone to wait: “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 defence minister Israel Katz had already called it an “attempted jihadist terror attack”. There has still been no official confirmation that it was a hijacking attempt. Watch what the Saudi authorities establish, since the aircraft, the suspect and the evidence are all in their jurisdiction.