Flydubai has announced the suspension of all flights to and from Israel. The story so far: On September 30, 2026, a flydubai Boeing 737-8 MAX flight, FZ 1073, had an in-flight incident while en route from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Tel Aviv, Israel — a 2,100-kilometre-plus sector covered in three hours. Most of the 174 passengers on board were Israelis.
The aircraft was diverted to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia and safely landed despite extensive damage to the aircraft. An investigation has begun.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that one pilot stabbed the other and “apparently tried to crash the plane”.
The incident happened about two and a half hours into the flight. The jet, which was in Jordanian airspace for a short while, looped back to Saudi Arabia and landed at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk. Pictures showed that the aircraft had substantial damage. An emergency descent can be controlled, but in this instance, where descent could have been initiated erratically, there can be severe damage and stress to the crucial flight control surfaces and even the aircraft’s tail. Ground images from Tabuk showed damage to the rudder on the tail/vertical stabiliser of the aircraft — a large part of it was missing. Passengers are seen deboarding the aircraft using a step ladder from Saudi Ground Services (SGS) Company, the ground handling agency. Reports quote passengers talking about a (pocket) knife having been used in the attack. Other reports cite the flight deck crash axe as having been used in the confrontation. It is to be accessed quickly and is in plain sight. It is used by the crew to breach the fuselage in an emergency and if there is structural deformation”. We have deployed two replacement aircraft to Tabuk to relieve the passengers and crew. This incident has no impact on other scheduled operations across the flydubai network”.
This civil-military airfield is also the base of the Royal Saudi Air Force Wing 7.
The airport said that its Air Traffic Control centre had received a distress call from the flight requesting an emergency landing. A senior Boeing pilot has told The Hindu that the crash axe (a mandatory aircraft safety emergency tool for aircrew) is “normally stored near the pilot seats. On October 1, an All India Radio bulletin said that the “Saudi authorities have arrested the Omani co-pilot”. In the second statement, the spokesperson said that “an altercation occurred in the flight deck and the aircraft was successfully secured by on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight, who diverted and landed the aircraft safely. The spokesperson said that “at this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation, urging all parties to refrain from premature speculation while authorities gather the facts”.
The Boeing 737, which was flying at about 34,000 feet, made a sudden descent to about 19,000 feet before levelling off at about 15,000 feet. Amid the commotion on the flight deck, the aircraft squawked a series of transponder codes that are used globally during an aviation emergency. This may have prompted Saudi Arabia and Israel to scramble fighter jets. In an interview with a media outlet, Mr. I think he’ll be taken to the Emirates where he comes from — or at least where he flew off from. We’ll be following and also possibly participating in this investigation.”
In this instance, the codes (7700 and 7500) denoted an emergency (in the case of mechanical or technical problems) as well as trouble due to a hijack or ‘unlawful interference’.
Media reports have said that an altercation is alleged to have broken out between the two flight crew members, with one of the pilots being stabbed. Netanyahu said, “The attacking pilot is now being investigated [in] Saudi Arabia.
