A flydubai Boeing 737 MAX, flying from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Israel’s Tel Aviv, declared an emergency, with the call signalling hijacking, and turned back over northern Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
Following this emergency, Hebrew media reported that Israeli Air Force fighter jets had been scrambled toward the plane over concerns of a hijacking. Shortly after a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv declared an emergency, a spokesperson from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stated that there was no hijack scare. The flight carried 174 passengers, including 27 children, according to local reports. 05:38 UTC (11:08 AM IST): The Squawk was changed to 7500, the code used to signal hijacking , according to Flightradar24. The aircraft descended 17,400 feet – from 34,000 to around 16,600 feet – over northwestern Saudi Arabia in just over two minutes at around 1:20 AM ET or 10:50 AM IST, according to a CNN report. The aircraft then transmitted an emergency signal at 11:01 AM IST.
From the takeoff to the light on the real reason, here is a timeline of how it all unfolded for the flydubai flight FZ1073, according to Flightradar24.
