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Hijack code, fighter jets, then a cockpit brawl: how the Flydubai Dubai–Tel Aviv flight story unfolded
A Flydubai Boeing 737 MAX flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv transmitted the international hijacking alert on Wednesday morning, sending Israeli fighter jets into the air and forcing an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. Within hours the scare collapsed into a different story: a violent fight between the two pilots in the cockpit. Later Israeli television added that one was Russian and the other Ukrainian.
The aircraft, flight FZ1073, left Dubai International around 7:05 a.m. local time with about 174 passengers, including 27 children and a large number of Israelis. It was due at Ben Gurion Airport near 9:30 a.m. Roughly 90 minutes in, as it entered Jordanian airspace, the transponder first showed squawk 7700 (general emergency) and then briefly 7500 — the code used worldwide to signal unlawful interference or a possible hijacking.
Flight-tracking data showed a sharp descent — CNN reported a drop of about 17,400 feet in two minutes — a U-turn, and a low-level track back into Saudi airspace. Contact with the crew was lost for a period and the plane vanished from public trackers. Israel treated the event as a potential security incident. The IDF scrambled jets, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz held an urgent consultation, and Ben Gurion departures were briefly paused.
The plane landed safely at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Airport in Tabuk. Passengers were unharmed. Flydubai said it would send another aircraft from Dubai to collect them and continue to Israel. Both pilots were taken off the flight.
How the explanation changed
The first public picture was the hijack code itself. Officials said they could not reach the pilots and that the situation was unclear. Early descriptions spoke of “violence on board” or an “internal personnel incident,” language that left room for a cabin disturbance among passengers. Social-media posts and some passenger accounts filled that gap: screams, blood near the cockpit, claims that one pilot had tried to stab the other. Those details have not been independently confirmed by the airline or investigators.
Israeli outlets then narrowed the story. Ynet, citing Flydubai, reported that the distress signal was triggered by a fight between the pilots, not a hijacking or an attack on the cabin. The airline confirmed a violent altercation in the cockpit. Security sources told Israeli media the event was not terrorism-related. Channel 12 added that one of the pilots lost consciousness during the struggle. Channel 14 circulated a more dramatic, still-unconfirmed version: that one pilot may have put the aircraft into a steep dive and the other fought him for control. Flydubai and Saudi authorities have not endorsed that account.
The last detail: nationalities
Israel’s Channel 12 then reported that the crew consisted of two pilots — one from Russia and one from Ukraine. The claim was repeated by NEXTA, BILD, and Ukrainian and Russian-language outlets. The airline has confirmed the fight but has not, in public statements so far, named the pilots or formally verified their nationalities. Both men were removed from the aircraft after landing in Tabuk.
According to journalist Amit Segal, authorities are examining the possibility that one of the pilots deliberately tried to crash the plane in order to take his own life. The claim is unconfirmed.
Picture of one of the passengers of FlyDubai flight covered in blood after fighting with one of the pilots armed with a knife-Yediot News pic.twitter.com/9bBvTkDlDj
— WarMonitor🇺🇦🇬🇧 (@WarMonitor3) September 30, 2026
Gulf carriers routinely hire pilots of many nationalities. The pairing of a Russian captain and a Ukrainian first officer, against the background of the war that began in 2022, immediately became the most shared fact of the afternoon — even though investigators have not said whether nationality had anything to do with the argument. But this could be anyone’s guess. The question is: was it wise to pair a Russian and a Ukrainian in the cockpit?
Caption: Corporate image by @Flydubai
