The aircraft landed in Tabuk shortly after takeoff, based on publicly available flight-tracking information. Israeli reports said two other pilots were travelling as passengers and later took control of the aircraft to help carry out the emergency landing.
One passenger told AFP that the travellers had later left Tabuk on another aircraft bound for Tel Aviv. The passenger said the new flight had already boarded and departed.
The incident has raised concerns because of reports of violence inside the cockpit during the flight.
The mother of one passenger, Yasmin Abukasis, told reporters that her daughter Miryam was travelling to attend a memorial service for her brother, who was killed during the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.
According to her mother, Miryam called after the emergency landing and said passengers believed they were in serious danger. She also described hearing shouting and seeing blood near the cockpit.
The details of what happened inside the cockpit have not been independently confirmed.
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir described the incident as an attempted terrorist attack, saying the person involved intended to crash the plane. Authorities have not yet publicly established the full circumstances or motive behind the reported confrontation.
The flight’s emergency landing comes as Israel continues to maintain tight security around air travel. The country has not experienced a hijacking in decades and has some of the strictest airport security measures in the world.
A second Flydubai flight travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv was also briefly shown as diverted on the Flightradar24 tracking service on Wednesday, although it was later shown continuing towards its destination.
Flydubai, a low-cost airline based in the United Arab Emirates, operates flights between Dubai and Israel. Air travel between the two countries increased after they established diplomatic relations in 2020.
Investigations are expected to clarify what happened during the flight and whether the reported cockpit confrontation was deliberate or linked to another incident.
