Israeli Leader: Passengers Stopped flydubai Co-Pilot From Downing Tel Aviv-Bound Jet

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the co-pilot on a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv stabbed the pilot and then attempted to crash the aircraft, before passengers intervened, subdued him and held him back. The plane was diverted and landed safely in Saudi Arabia. Netanyahu described the event as "a highly severe security incident." He said Saudi authorities have taken the co-pilot into custody and are interrogating him. An Israeli official named the suspect as a citizen of Oman. He was arrested as soon as the plane landed at Tabuk Regional Airport in north-western Saudi Arabia. "All passengers are out of harm's way," Netanyahu said in a video message distributed by his office. He noted that the people on board were mostly Israeli citizens. Based on the accounts Israeli leaders cited, travelers and a crew member pushed into the cockpit once the plane abruptly lost altitude and plunged sharply. There, according to the account, they saw the co-pilot apparently trying to seize control of the aircraft. "They saved many lives. They prevented a heavy disaster," Netanyahu said. Data from Flightradar24 indicated that flydubai flight FZ1073 plunged almost 14,000 feet in under half a minute while entering Jordanian airspace. While the emergency was underway, the plane sent out a general emergency code (squawk 7700) and an unlawful interference signal (squawk 7500). At first, Israeli officials said the situation grew out of a violent struggle in the cockpit, not a conventional hijacking by an outside party. Nevertheless, Israeli security agencies are examining it as a suspected attempted terrorist attack.