Dubai carrier Flydubai has confirmed that flight FZ 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv “experienced an incident” while en route on Wednesday and landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, with all passengers safe and accounted for.
The statement is the airline’s first public comment on the episode, which set off a hijacking alert and a security response in Israel.
The airline said its teams were working closely with the relevant authorities and that further updates would follow “as additional confirmed details become available”.
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It stressed that the safety and well-being of passengers and crew remained its highest priority.
The statement did not say what the incident was, why the aircraft was diverted or how many people were on board.
The flight, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 operating between Dubai International and Ben Gurion Airport, had transmitted the general emergency squawk code 7700 and then briefly switched to 7500, the code for unlawful interference, before returning to 7700, flight-tracking data showed.
Flight-tracking timelines put the departure from Dubai at about 03:05 UTC, with the 7700 code first transmitted at around 05:31 UTC and 7500 about seven minutes later.
The aircraft was scheduled to land at Ben Gurion at about 9:10 a.m. local time, but turned away, descended sharply and disappeared from tracking sites near Tabuk.
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Israel scrambled fighter jets in response, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the situation was under control and that measures were under way to return the Israeli passengers home.
Israeli officials and defence sources later said it was not a hijacking, with the emergency apparently stemming from an altercation between the pilots, according to The Jerusalem Post.
That account has not been confirmed by Flydubai or aviation authorities. An aviation authority official quoted by Business Upturn said it would not be possible to establish exactly what happened until checks on the aircraft are complete.
Passenger numbers vary by report, from more than 100 to around 180, mostly Israelis. The Jerusalem Post reported that Flydubai was sending another aircraft to Saudi Arabia to bring the passengers on to Tel Aviv.
Flydubai is a major carrier on routes linking India and the Gulf, and Saudi and Gulf airspace is heavily used by flights to and from India.
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