A flydubai passenger jet flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv as flight FZ1073 transmitted the general emergency squawk code 7700 on Wednesday morning, and then briefly code 7500, which signals unlawful interference or a hijacking. The plane abruptly changed course and lost altitude as it entered Jordanian airspace, then turned back and landed at Tabuk Airport in northern Saudi Arabia.
According to Israeli media, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 was carrying 174 passengers, including 27 children. The codes were transmitted about an hour and a half after the aircraft took off from Dubai.
Israeli Air Force fighter jets were scrambled following the alert. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz held an urgent security consultation, while the military chief of staff held an assessment with the heads of the Air Force and military intelligence. “There is no definitive information about a hijacking. The pilot activated a distress signal. We are unable to establish contact with the pilot, and that is concerning,” an Israeli security official said at the time.
After the plane landed safely in Tabuk, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said the incident was not a hijacking but a dispute between the pilots. An Israeli official told Reuters the pilots transmitted the emergency signals after a physical altercation in the cockpit.
In the first hours, Israel’s Channel 12 and the Israel Hayom newspaper claimed the fight broke out between a Russian captain and a Ukrainian co-pilot; Israel Hayom later reported that the captain is Emirati and the co-pilot Omani. Later in the day, Israeli officials said one of the pilots had tried to crash the plane and began investigating the incident as a suspected act of terror. The Israel Airports Authority said the country’s airspace was open and operations were proceeding as usual.
Transponder codes are used in aviation to inform air traffic control of an aircraft’s status: 7700 indicates a general emergency, 7600 a loss of radio communication and 7500 unlawful interference or a suspected hijacking.
