It is not yet clear what happened on board flight FZ 1073. According to the latest statements from the Tel Aviv authorities, one of the pilots attempted to crash the plane which was carrying around 180 Israeli citizens. The trail of terrorism is being investigated. According to local media, the alleged attacker would be the pilot of Omani nationality.
After departing Dubai, the Flydubai-operated flight first issued a general emergency code (7700) and then broadcast another (7500) indicating an act of unlawful interference. That is, a hijacking or a serious threat. Two Tel Aviv fighters took off to escort the plane to the ground.
What happened
Flight FZ 1073 was the first of the day. As reported by the Flightradar24 platform, it left Dubai at 7:05 and was due to land in Tel Aviv, as scheduled. But at 8:22 in the morning, an hour before its landing and while flying over Saudi Arabia, the Boeing 737 Max8 transmitted a squawk code 7700 (general emergency) on its transponder and immediately after set another one, 7500. The latter indicates an act of unlawful interference with the flight and can only mean two things: either there is a hijacking in progress or the plane is suffering a serious threat.
Flight data recorded by several tracking stations, he writes Haaretzshowed a descent from 34,000 feet (about 10,000 meters high) to 16,000 feet (just under 5,000 meters) in less than two minutes.
Tel Aviv, as reported Haaretz, N12 And Kann newsimmediately sent two fighters to reach the aircraft. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added water to the fire: “The incident involving Flydubai is not a hijacking,” he declared.
One of the pilots wanted to crash the plane
But soon after it emerged what would have been the intent of one of the pilots on board: to crash the plane. The code was activated after an argument between the pilots of the flight, an argument that even led to a scuffle. Channel 12 initially reported that the pilot of the flight was a Russian citizen, while the co-pilot had Ukrainian origins. A few hours later the site Ynet reported something completely different: one pilot would be from Oman, while the other would be an Emirati citizen.
Passengers on board the flight said the pilots had lost control of the plane before others burst into the cockpit and intervened. Dalia Shpigel told ad Haaretz that passengers sitting at the front of the plane entered the cockpit after realizing something was wrong. “We heard screams on the plane. Then they opened the cockpit and we saw blood: someone had stabbed the pilot with a knife,” a passenger told Channel 12. The testimonies are still fragmentary and some are even conflicting with each other.
An Israeli source told the Jerusalem Post that it is not yet known what the intention of one of the two pilots was: whether to divert it to Israel, whether to crash it into the ground or whether to carry out a September 11-style attack. Israeli authorities are still verifying the identity of the stabbed pilot. Always for the Postthe belief is spreading among the IDF, the Mossad and the Shin Bet that the incident was conceived as a terrorist act.
“The plane dived for a minute”: the video from the flight between Dubai and Tel Aviv
The flight eventually landed around 9.10am at Tabuk Airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia. In addition to commercial flights to neighboring countries, the airport hosts the Seventh Wing of the Royal Saudi Air Force. He was first escorted by Israeli jets and then by Saudi ones.