Flydubai flight to Israel diverted to Saudi Arabia after emergency alert
Airline says plane experiences ‘incident’ en route from Dubai to Tel Aviv, lands safely at Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk airport.
A commercial plane travelling from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Israel has been forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
The Flydubai plane transmitted an emergency alert shortly after takeoff on Wednesday, according to publicly available flight-tracking information.
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The airline confirmed that the plane “experienced an incident while en route”, adding that it landed safely at Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk airport, a civilian and military base in the kingdom, and all passengers are safe and accounted for.
It said more details will be shared later.
The incident that caused the plane to issue an “unlawful interference” alert was apparently due to an altercation between the pilots on board the flight, Israeli media outlets reported, citing Israeli officials.
It was not possible to immediately verify the reports.
According to data from the Flightradar24 website, the aircraft suddenly lost altitude during the flight, dropping from nearly 34,000 feet at 05:21 GMT to less than 17,000 feet at 05:22 GMT.
Meanwhile, Israel said it was organising the safe return of Israeli passengers from Saudi Arabia.
“The incident is under control, and all measures are currently being deployed in order to return the Israeli passengers safely to Israel,” a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
Flight-tracking data indicated that the plane was a Boeing 737 Max 8.
Emergency landings for personnel reasons are rare yet not unheard of. In 2022, two Air France pilots were suspended after fighting in the cockpit on a Geneva-Paris flight, though it did not have to be diverted and landed as planned.
Steep dip before landing
Passengers on the plane told Israel’s Channel 12 by phone that they heard shouts from the front of the plane and heard the altercation between the pilots, and that the plane dipped steeply before landing in Saudi Arabia.
They also said that all the passengers were staying on the plane and that there was a heavy presence of Saudi security forces surrounding them.
Flydubai is the lower-cost sister carrier of Emirates airline. The UAE has become a popular holiday destination for Israeli tourists since the countries normalised ties in 2020.
The Israeli military said in a statement that Israeli Chief of the General Staff Eyal Zamir held an assessment of the incident with senior officers after the reported incident.
Flydubai’s fleet relies entirely on variants of the 737, a twin-engine, single-aisle aircraft that is widely used by airlines around the world. It has nearly 100 planes, including 69 of the Max 8 variant.
The flight originated from Dubai International Airport, the Middle East’s busiest airport and the world’s largest in terms of international travel. It handled a record 95.2 million passengers last year.