There appears to have been a 9/11-style suicide hijacking attempt today on a commercial flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
Details are sketchy, as they always are at this early stage after such an event, but a little over two hours after FlyDubai Flight 1073 took off, reports indicate that the copilot repeatedly stabbed the pilot and for a time took control. There were about 180 people on the flight, most of them Israelis. A group of passengers and crew managed to storm the cockpit and retake control of the flight. The New York Times says the flight was cruising at an altitude of 34,000 feet but then suddenly descended to 15,000 feet before leveling off.
It is not clear to me who landed the plane. Photos on social media suggest the pilot may have been in no condition to do so, and the co-pilot had been subdued. I’ve seen some reports (unconfirmed) that other trained pilots — possibly from a second crew traveling between assignments — were on the flight and helped the plane make an emergency landing in Tabuk, in northwestern Saudi Arabia. During the struggle, the crew apparently emitted the international emergency signal for a flight in distress. Israeli fighter jets were scrambled and appear to have escorted the flight to Saudi airspace.
For now, besides the pilot, who appears to have survived, and the co-pilot, who was injured in the scrape, no casualties have been reported. The co-pilot is in custody — I have not seen any identification at this point other than that he is an Omani national. We’ll keep watching it.