JERUSALEM — A flight carrying 180 passengers Tel Aviv from Dubai was diverted to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after a midair altercation prompted its pilots to issue a hijacking distress signal and Israel to scramble fighter jets, with the Middle East already on a knife edge.
The brawling parties? Apparently the pilots themselves, according to Israeli media.
Flydubai Flight 1073 was less than an hour from Israeli airspace when its pilots briefly activated the “7500” emergency code — signaling unlawful interference — and turned the plane around before landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
The distress code, which is used to signal a possible hijacking, set off alarms at the highest levels, with the Israeli Air Force ordering fighter jets to escort the passenger plane and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his senior security officials holding urgent meetings.
About an hour after the initial distress signal, Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying “the incident is under control and all means are now being employed to bring the Israeli passengers back safely to Israel.”
An Israeli military official said its fighter jets ended their escort.
The flight experienced “an incident while en route,” Flydubai said in a statement, adding that all passengers were safe and accounted. The airline did not give further details.
With the nature of the altercation not immediately clear, officials appeared to leave open the possibility of a serious security incident. Given that no one was hurt, the incident also set off a flurry of macabre humor. Fight or flight? Um, both.
The alarm briefly spiked fears amid the ongoing U.S.-led war against Iran, and raised memories of the 1960s and 1970s, when flights to and from Israel were frequently hijacked by Palestinian militants.
Hijackings have since declined significantly because of improved security measures at airports and onboard planes.
“Well this had everyone in the Middle East (esp Israel) on FULL ALERT this morning. Glad it wasn’t more serious,” U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee wrote on X. “But having pilots inflight detouring to ‘fist city’ not your ordinary experience.”
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