Passengers aboard a flydubai flight traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv have shared harrowing accounts of mid-air terror after an incident inside the cockpit led to an emergency landing at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia.
The aircraft, carrying 174 passengers—including 27 children—and six crew members, experienced panic when screaming broke out and the plane began to descend rapidly over northern Saudi Arabia.
Terrifying Accounts From Inside the Cabin
Eyewitnesses and passengers aboard the flight described scenes of panic and confusion as crew members and passengers scrambled to manage the situation.
”We heard screams on the plane. Then they opened the cockpit and we saw blood, and someone had stabbed the pilot with a pocketknife,” an unnamed woman told news outlets via text message.
She added that crew members and Israeli passengers on board intervened to help bring the situation under control.
Another passenger, who identified herself as Noam, recounted how the aircraft suddenly plunged:
”Screams began on the plane… by passengers who realized what was happening. We understand that one of the pilots was stabbed and seriously wounded, and they lost control of the plane. It started to dive quickly. It was very scary.”
Rapid Altitude Plunge & Emergency Divert
Flight-tracking data showed the Boeing 737 MAX experiencing an unusually steep and rapid descent, dropping thousands of feet in under a minute before stabilizing and diverting toward Tabuk in northern Saudi Arabia.
While initial alerts sent transponder signals indicating potential unlawful interference, subsequent reports from Israeli security officials clarified that the emergency was triggered by an internal altercation and assault in the cockpit rather than an external hijacking attempt.
The plane landed safely in Tabuk, where local authorities and airline representatives met the passengers and crew to assess injuries and begin formal investigations into the incident.
