A pilot has been arrested and is being interrogated by Saudi Arabian authorities, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu said.
A pilot has become arrested in Saudi Arabia after a flight on Wednesday morning from Dubai to Israel sent out a distress signal and later made an emergency landing.
This is what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.
– During the flight, when they were approaching Israel, one pilot stabbed the other pilot and apparently tried to make the plane crash with all the passengers on board, he says in the statement.
There are still many unanswered questions about what actually happened during the flight.
But flight data shows that the plane from the airline company Flydubai made a dive in the air, two hours after it had taken off from Dubai.
In a short time, the plane lost 5.2 kilometers of altitude, then rose again and then fell another 2.1 kilometers.
The airliner sent out a distress signal and later a signal indicating that an aircraft has been hijacked or subjected to other interference.
The arrested pilot is being interrogated by the Saudi Arabian authorities, Netanyahu said.
There is no word yet on the condition of the other pilot. But both pilots were taken to hospital after the plane landed.
During Wednesday, there was conflicting information about what actually happened during the flight, as passengers and their relatives came forward with accounts.
But information about some kind of fight between the plane’s two pilots has been consistent. This is noted by several media – including Sky News.
The airline has stated that all passengers on board the plane are unharmed. The plane made an emergency landing at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia at 07:44 Danish time.
Netanyahu writes that he has spoken to one of the Israeli passengers on the plane.
– He told me that somehow he managed to break into the cockpit together with a crew member. Together they overpowered the pilot, who had stabbed while he was trying to sabotage the plane’s systems, writes the Prime Minister.
RITZAU
