Israel denounces ‘jihadist terrorist attack attempt’: What we know about the Dubai to Tel Aviv flight incident
Israeli security sources have raised the possibility that one of the two pilots may have attempted to take control of the aircraft in an effort to make it crash.
by L'Orient Today staff · L'Orient TodayBEIRUT — It is a little after 8 a.m. on Wednesday. Flydubai flight FZ1073, which departed Dubai for Tel Aviv, is flying over northern Saudi Arabia. On board are around 180 people, most of them Israelis.
The Boeing 737-8 MAX is flying at around 34,000 feet, or just over 10,000 meters, when its course suddenly changes. According to flight-tracking data analyzed by Flightradar24, the aircraft begins a rapid descent, losing several thousand meters in altitude and reaching around 16,000 feet. Part of the descent takes place in less than two minutes.
On the ground, it is still unclear what is happening on board. Then the first signal provides another piece of the puzzle: the FZ1073 transponder displays code 7700, used in aviation to signal a general emergency.
A few minutes later, a second code appears. Code 7500 indicates unlawful interference on board, including a possible hijacking. The signal then switches back to 7700.
The aircraft also changes course. Instead of continuing toward Israel, it heads northwest over Saudi Arabia, toward Tabuk.
The alert is taken seriously in Israel. According to Israeli media, fighter jets are dispatched to intercept the aircraft and a crisis cell is activated, while the possibility of a hijacking has not yet been ruled out.
But FZ1073 is not heading toward Israel. It is heading toward Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia.
At 8:44 a.m., the control center at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Airport in Tabuk receives a distress call from FZ1073, according to Cluster2, the company that operates the airport. The aircraft lands safely about an hour later.
“All passengers are safe and sound,” Flydubai confirms, referring to an “incident” that occurred during the flight. The captain and co-pilot are injured and taken to hospital, according to Tabuk airport.
What happened in the cockpit?
It is only after the aircraft lands that a clearer picture begins to emerge. A violent altercation is believed to have broken out between the two pilots. But what triggered it, and exactly what happened in the cockpit, initially remains unclear.
Flydubai confirms only that an “incident” occurred in the cockpit. In a statement, the airline says the reasons for the altercation are “unknown” and calls on “all parties to refrain from premature speculation.”
Passenger accounts and reports from several Israeli media outlets, however, provide a more detailed account. Several passengers say the co-pilot stabbed the captain. Israeli security sources, meanwhile, have raised the possibility that the co-pilot attempted to take control of the aircraft and deliberately crash it.
In a video address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that “one of the pilots had stabbed the other pilot” and had “apparently attempted to crash the plane with everyone on board.”
An Israeli passenger, Miriam Shira Ohayon, told AFP that the co-pilot allegedly attacked the captain while the plane was over Jordan. According to her account, he “tried to kill the pilot and carry out a suicide attack.” “The plane was really on the verge of crashing,” she said, adding that passengers intervened to restrain and subdue the co-pilot.
Two other pilots who were on board as passengers then reportedly took control of the cockpit. They took over the controls and allowed the aircraft to continue its flight to Tabuk. Images circulated on social media also show at least one passenger with blood on his clothing.
Several versions of exactly what happened are still circulating. Israeli Channel 12 reports that authorities are examining, among other possibilities, whether one of the pilots attempted suicide. Israel’s army radio, citing security sources, says evidence suggesting that the co-pilot wanted to take control of the aircraft and crash it with its passengers on board is mounting.
Channel 14 claims that the co-pilot was Omani and attempted to take control of the aircraft before being stopped by an Emirati pilot. Haaretz, however, notes that other possibilities remain under investigation.
What procedures are in place in the event of an incident in an aircraft cockpit? Pilots currently working in the region must undergo training known as “Crew Resource Management” (CRM), designed to make communication between crew members and ground staff “as smooth and clear as possible,” a serving pilot in the Middle East told L’Orient-Le Jour. The profession involves a high likelihood of people from different cultures having to work together.
The training also covers risk and hazard management, stress management and decision-making. In extreme cases involving dangerous behavior by a pilot, other safety procedures and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) can also apply, alongside CRM principles. These may include intervention by the other pilot, access to the cockpit from outside and emergency procedures.
'Attempted terrorist attack'
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz described the incident as an “attempted jihadist terrorist attack.” According to Katz, several Israeli passengers subdued “the terrorist” and regained control of the aircraft.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir also referred to a “terrorist” who wanted to crash the plane and kill those on board. But these claims have not, at this stage, been corroborated by Flydubai or the Saudi authorities. Katz has not publicly specified what evidence underpinned his characterization.
Reuters, for its part, reports that the co-pilot’s motive remains unknown. Netanyahu says he has ordered Israel’s security services to prepare for any additional potential threat and that he is “in constant contact with the Saudi authorities.”
Meanwhile, the passengers remain in Tabuk. Another Flydubai aircraft is eventually chartered in the afternoon to bring them back to Tel Aviv. The plane carrying the passengers lands at Ben Gurion Airport at 3:34 p.m. GMT, where Netanyahu goes to meet them.
Israeli Transport Minister Miri Regev, meanwhile, calls for Flydubai flights to Israel to be suspended and demands an investigation into the circumstances under which the aircraft and its crew were authorized to operate the route.
Regional conflict and Israel’s legislative elections
The Flydubai incident comes amid an already particularly tense regional context, as Israel is engaged in a war in the Middle East and Israeli legislative elections are scheduled for late October. In the wake of the incident, Itamar Ben Gvir also shared a Channel 14 report claiming that the suspect had planned an attack inspired by the Sept. 11 attacks.
The day before the incident, Benjamin Netanyahu said that “indications” suggested Israel’s enemies might attempt to carry out attacks against the country before the election. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, however, disputed any connection between the warnings Netanyahu referred to the previous day and the Flydubai flight incident. He said that “nothing even remotely resembling this morning’s plane incident” had been mentioned during a security briefing Netanyahu gave him the previous evening. “Nothing similar, nothing that would suggest it, not even a hint,” he added.
Lapid also denounced what he described as a “staged show” by government spokespeople, accusing them of “playing petty politics at the expense of Israel’s security.”
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