“It felt like, that’s it. It’s over. September 11 is happening again.” This is how passengers aboard a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv recounted the moment when the Boeing 737 MAX plunged from over 30,000 feet before making an emergency landing due to a fight between pilots in the cockpit.
Get breaking news anytime, anywhere. Download the TOI app now!
The aircraft was cruising over Saudi Arabia when passengers suddenly felt it begin to lose altitude and spin. Within moments, panic spread through the cabin as people realised something was seriously wrong at the front of the plane.
Daniel, one of the passengers, described the descent as lasting what felt like an eternity.
“The spinning stopped. It took some - I don’t know, it felt like an eternity, but I think it was two minutes, at least two or three minutes, during which the plane was simply diving and spinning like crazy. It felt like, that’s it. It’s over. September 11 is happening again,” he told the Times of Israel.
Another passenger Italie said the plane repeatedly dropped and levelled out before passengers noticed a commotion near the cockpit.
“It was dropping like for 20, 30 seconds, and then balanced, and then started dropping again, and balanced again. Then we saw that there were people in the front, directly in front of the cockpit,” he said.
Italie said passengers and crew members rushed towards the cockpit as the situation unfolded.
“Crew members and passengers from the front of the airplane took over and got control of the two pilots,” he said.
The flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Tabuk following an altercation between the pilots.
The Boeing 737 MAX initially transmitted the international emergency code 7700 before briefly sending code 7500, which indicates hijacking or unlawful interference. Israeli authorities scrambled fighter jets as they were unable to establish contact with the aircraft.
What happened inside the cockpit
An Israeli official told the Associated Press that a fight broke out between the pilots and that one of them was armed with a knife. Reuters reported that the co-pilot was believed to have stabbed the captain before cabin crew members entered the cockpit.
Another regional official also confirmed that an altercation had taken place in the cockpit, although the cause of the fight was not immediately clear.
The aircraft’s captain and first officer were injured and taken to hospital, according to a statement from Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk, carried by Saudi state-run Al Ekhbariya television.
A reserve flydubai crew travelling on the aircraft took control after the incident and landed the plane safely at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia, flydubai said.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said passengers had intervened and helped prevent what he described as an attempt to crash the aircraft.
“According to our preliminary information, the terrorist had a single objective: to crash the plane,” Katz said in a statement.
Flydubai, however, said the underlying cause of the incident had not yet been established and urged caution against “premature speculation”.
