Distress signal indicated that aircraft bound for Israel had been hijacked or subjected to some other illegal act.
A plane with 180 passengers en route to Israel was diverted to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday morning after the plane sent out a distress signal.
The Israeli Air Force sent fighter jets on the wings in connection with the incident, writes the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
The passenger plane was on its way from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Tel Aviv in Israel when it emitted a 7700 code, which is an international distress signal, writes the Times of Israel.
The aircraft then emitted a 7500 code indicating that an aircraft has been hijacked or subjected to some other form of unlawful interference.
Unnamed Israeli officials told Haaretz that the distress signal was issued after a “physical clash” between the plane’s pilots.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz held a security meeting on the matter on Wednesday morning.
According to the Reuters news agency, the Prime Minister’s office announces that the plane is not considered to have been hijacked.
Shortly after 09 am Danish time, the plane landed in Tabuk in Saudi Arabia.
It is a Boeing 737 MAX8 passenger plane from the company Flydubai.
Flydubai confirms in a statement that there has been an incident with the aircraft in question and that it has landed safely in Saudi Arabia.
All passengers are safe, it says.
RITZAU
