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A Flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv from Dubai was diverted after a co-pilot allegedly attacked the pilot and attempted to take control of the aircraft, according to a passenger on board.
The incident occurred on Wednesday while the aircraft was flying over Jordan, prompting passengers to intervene and restrain the co-pilot.
Passenger Miryam Shira Ohayon told reporters that the aircraft was “pretty much out of control” during the incident and that passengers feared the plane was about to crash.
“The co-pilot tried to murder the pilot and basically carry out a suicide attack on the plane,” Ohayon said in a phone interview while her mother waited for her at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv.
She said several passengers managed to overpower and neutralise the co-pilot, while a doctor on board provided first aid to the injured pilot.
“Other than the pilot, there were no injuries, but the bigger fear was really a crash, which is exactly what he was trying to do,” she said.
Video footage circulated on Israeli social media appeared to show a passenger with blood on his head calling for assistance from inside the aircraft.
The passenger said those on board had subdued the attackers and were preparing to land in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
“We are here during an attack on the plane. We just subdued the terrorists and are preparing to land,” he said in Hebrew, adding that the passengers were safe except for the pilot.
Ohayon said she had been travelling to Israel to attend a memorial service for her brother, who was killed during the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.
Her mother, Yasmin Abukasis, said her daughter believed the passengers were going to die during the incident.
“She thought they were going to die,” Abukasis told AFP, adding that her daughter saw a woman enter the cockpit where there was “a lot of blood”.
According to Abukasis, two other pilots on board subsequently took control of the aircraft and diverted the flight to Saudi Arabia.
The circumstances surrounding the incident, including the motive of the co-pilot and the aircraft's final diversion arrangements, were not independently established in the account.
