Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
A FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Israel made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after an incident on board briefly raised fears of a hijacking and led Israel to scramble warplanes. Israeli media, citing security officials, said the problem was caused by a dispute between the two pilots, and everyone on board was safe.
The aircraft, flight FZ 1073 to Ben Gurion airport, landed in Tabuk, which serves as both a civilian and military base. Netanyahu’s office later said the situation was under control and that Israel was working to bring the passengers home.
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Publicly available flight tracking data showed that the plane sent out an emergency alert shortly after take-off. A regional official briefed on the matter said a fight broke out in the cockpit and apparently involved the pilots. The official said it was not immediately clear what had caused the altercation. A second official said Israel had scrambled warplanes because of fears that the aircraft, carrying dozens of Israeli citizens, may have been hijacked. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter was still under investigation. According to Flight Radar, the incident took place about two-and-a-half hours after take-off.
Passengers told Israel’s Channel 12 by phone that people seated near the front heard shouting linked to the altercation between the pilots, and that the plane dipped steeply before landing in Saudi Arabia. They also said all passengers were still on the plane and that Saudi security forces had surrounded it. FlyDubai later confirmed that the aircraft had been involved in an incident and had landed safely in Tabuk. “Our teams are working closely with the relevant authorities,” the airline said. “Further updates will be issued as additional confirmed details become available.” FlyDubai is the lower-cost sister airline of Emirates. Commercial flights have operated between Israel and the UAE since the two countries normalised ties in 2020, and the UAE has since become a popular destination for Israeli tourists.
Emergency landings over personnel issues are rare but not unknown. In 2022, two Air France pilots were suspended after fighting in the cockpit on a Geneva-Paris flight, although that plane was not diverted and landed as scheduled. Israel, whose citizens were targeted in a series of hijackings and aircraft attacks by Palestinian militants in the 1960s and 1970s, has not faced a hijacking in decades but continues to enforce some of the world’s strictest airport security checks for flights bound for the country.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
