DOHA, September 30. /TASS/. Flydubai cannot disclose the nationalities of the pilots on a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight that made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, The National reported, citing an airline representative.
A senior Flydubai official told the newspaper that the airline could not disclose the nationalities of the two pilots. According to the source, the circumstances will become clear only after investigators gain access to the flight recorders. The official added that the aircraft's rudder had been damaged in the incident, but none of the passengers was seriously injured.
On the morning of September 30, a Flydubai passenger plane transmitted a hijacking alert and made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. According to Israeli media reports, a fight broke out in the cockpit, during which one of the pilots was stabbed. Channel 14 said that the person responsible was an Omani national who tried to crash the plane but was stopped by the second pilot, a UAE citizen. The Hindustan Times, for its part, reported that the injured captain was Indian national Smit Machchhar, who has worked for the airline since 2022.