A fight between pilots forces a flight to Tel Aviv to make an emergency landing, officials say

A fight between pilots on a commercial flight from the United Arab Emirates to Israel forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, according to two officials. The episode raised concerns about a possible hijacking of a plane carrying dozens of Israelis and prompted Israel to scramble warplanes. TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A fight between pilots on a commercial plane traveling from the United Arab Emirates to Israel forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, according to two officials.

But Israel believes there may have been an attempt to attack Israelis, and an investigation is ongoing, an Israeli official said.Around two and a half hours after departing from Dubai, the plane sent an emergency alert, according to publicly available flight tracking information.The flight abruptly descended from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet (around 10,000 meters to 5,100 meters) in about the space of a minute, before making an erratic circle close to the Jordanian border and eventually landing in Tabuk about an hour later, according to Flightradar24.Officials say there was a fightThe Israeli official said a fight broke out between two pilots, one of whom was armed with a knife. A regional official briefed on the incident also said a fight broke out in the cockpit and apparently involved pilots.“The crew have been questioned as part of the investigation,” the regional official added but did not say if anyone had been detained. They said it wasn’t immediately clear what caused the fight.A third official confirmed that Israel had scrambled warplanes, fearing a hijacking.

All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was under investigation.The aircraft’s captain and the first officer were injured and taken to the hospital, according to a statement from the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk carried by the Saudi state-run Alekhbariya television. Passengers were receiving medical attention from local authorities, according to another regional official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned in recent days of unspecified, escalated security threats. The country is days away from marking the anniversary of the Oct.

7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, weeks away from an election, and has been embroiled in multiple conflicts in the last three years.Netanyahu’s office said the situation was under control and Israel was working t… A fight between pilots on a commercial plane traveling from the United Arab Emirates to Israel forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.