Inside the cockpit chaos: Passengers describe blood, screams on Flydubai flight
Passengers aboard a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv described scenes of panic in the air after screams erupted on board, a pilot was reportedly stabbed and the Boeing 737 MAX suddenly went into a steep dive before eventually making an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. Then they opened the cockpit and we saw blood, and someone had stabbed the pilot with a pocketknife,” an Israeli passenger told Channel 12, describing the moments after the incident broke out. A senior Israeli official told Channel 12 that without the presence of the additional pilots, the incident could have ended in another September 11, 2001, attack or an Entebbe-style hostage incident.
Israeli officials said the emergency signals appeared to have been triggered after a fight broke out between the two pilots, although the precise circumstances had not been confirmed by flydubai. Passengers reported blood in the cockpit and said one of the pilots had been stabbed.
Flydubai said all passengers were safe and accounted for, while declining to provide further details beyond confirming that an incident had occurred. “We heard screams on the plane. The aircraft eventually established contact and landed safely at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia.
The flight, FDB1073, was carrying around 180 passengers, including dozens of Israelis, when it declared an emergency while flying over the Jordan-Saudi Arabia border. The Boeing 737 MAX initially transmitted the international emergency code 7700 before briefly sending code 7500, which indicates hijacking or unlawful interference. Separately, news agency Walla reported that the pilot under investigation is Omani.
Israeli authorities scrambled fighter jets as they were unable to establish contact with the aircraft.