Add the Gazzetta del Sud as a source
«Following an assessment of the situation between the leaders of the IDF, the Shin Bet and the Mossad, the belief is spreading in Israel that the Flydubai plane crash was a terrorist attack». Yedioth Ahronot writes it.
Contrary to what they had previously reported, Israeli media now report that the pilots of the FlyDubai plane headed to Tel Aviv and which landed in emergency in Saudi Arabia were not one Russian and the other Ukrainian, but one Omani and the other Emirati. The pilot who attempted to crash the plane is believed to be a citizen of Oman, Ynet reports.
Another Dubai-Tel Aviv flight diverted
Another FlyDubai flight heading from Dubai to Tel Aviv has reversed course and is returning back. This was reported by the Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 and Yedioth Ahronoth, based on data from the Flightradar24 website, specifying that it is flight FZ1081 which left at 12.36 local time from the Emirates.
This morning a FlyDubai plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after a serious accident on board: the co-pilot attempted to crash it and was blocked by the pilot and Israeli passengers.
Netanyahu cancels visit to the south
Following the FlyDubai plane crash, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has canceled a visit to southern Israel and is about to hold security talks. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister and Defense Minister Israel Israel Katz have ordered the sending of military rescue planes to Saudi Arabia to bring home the Israeli passengers of the FlyDubai flight.
The hypotheses under consideration
Speaking to Yedioth Ahronot, senior Israeli aviation officials report that the possibility of a security incident on board the FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport has not yet been ruled out. According to an initial assessment, one of the pilots attempted to cause a crash, but the other managed to foil the attempt with the help of some Israeli passengers.
Israeli sources report that an investigation is underway to ascertain the causes of the accident on the FlyDubai flight: suspicion is growing that a suicide attempt by one of the pilots is behind the alleged hijacking. Authorities are also examining whether the motive was to crash the plane in a terrorist attack. Yedioth Ahronot reports it.
The company’s version
The airline FlyDubai officially announced that «the pilots had a scuffle in the cockpit during the flight, until one of them lost consciousness. This was not a security incident.” Channel 12 reports this in relation to the emergency that occurred on the Dubai-Tel Aviv flight which subsequently landed in Saudi Arabia.
Passengers detained on board
The approximately 180 passengers on the plane were ordered to remain seated and not disembark, except for the pilots. The CEO of FlyDubai informed transport officials in Israel: a plane will soon depart from Dubai to Saudi Arabia and from there continue to Israel.
The story of the passengers
“There were moments when we were certain it was the end,” one of the passengers on the FlyDubai flight for which the emergency arose following the scuffle between the two pilots told Channel 12. “We heard screams and screams, then we saw the cockpit being opened and there was blood,” he said.
Data from flight tracking app Flightradar24 documented that the plane quickly descended from an altitude of about 34,000 feet to about 14,000 feet. According to unconfirmed rumors from the Israeli media, based on the testimonies of passengers on board, one of the pilots attempted to crash the aircraft, but was stopped by the co-pilot with the help of the passengers.