A flydubai commercial flight en route to Tel Aviv abruptly landed in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, on September 30 following a physical altercation involving the pilots.

While the flight landed safely and no casualties were reported, a senior Israeli official indicated that one of the pilots appeared to be intent on suicide, willingly attempting to crash the plane in the process.

Flight tracking data from Flight Radar 24 showed that FZ1073, operating a Boeing 737 Max 8, executed a sharp U-turn over Jordanian airspace and rapidly descended to 15,000 feet before diverting to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia, fully laden with passengers from Israel.

The mid-air crisis initially simulated the profile of a hostile hijacking, transmitting a 7700 general emergency squawk code that subsequently escalated to a 7500 code indicating unlawful interference, prompting emergency security consultations at the highest levels of the Israeli government.

"Following concerns about an aviation incident, Prime Minister Netanyahu held consultations on the issue and monitored developments," the Prime Minister's Office wrote in an official release. 

An earlier report from Israel's Channel 14 claimed that the preliminary suspicion in the flydubai incident is that one pilot attempted suicide, putting the aircraft into a steep dive from 30,000 to 15,000 feet at around Mach 1. The second pilot reportedly fought him and regained control, but IntelliNews could not verify it.

Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yisrael Katz convened an urgent strategic consultation before aviation authorities clarified the nature of the internal cockpit violence.

"The incident is under control, and all measures are now being taken to safely return the Israeli passengers to Israel," the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed.

Flydubai confirmed that it is deploying a secondary aircraft to Tabuk to extract the stranded passengers and complete the route to Ben Gurion Airport, Kan News reported.

Israel's Channel 14 claimed that the reason for the incident was that one of the pilots attempted to commit suicide. According to a flydubai internal investigation, a fight between crew members, who are of Russian and Ukrainian origin, broke out, causing a distress signal to be activated.

A senior Israeli official shed more light on the incident, telling N12: "A very serious disaster was averted. The co-pilot is now being questioned, and indications are growing that he wanted to take control of the plane and crash it with the passengers." According to testimonies from passengers on board, multiple crew members and passengers broke down the door and managed to overpower the co-pilot.