FlyDubai Flight From Dubai to Israel Diverted to Saudi Arabia After Pilot Fight A FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Israel made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, after a fight between pilots, prompting Israel to scramble warplanes over hijacking fears. A FlyDubai flight travelling from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Israel made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after a fight between pilots, according to two officials. The incident raised concerns about a possible hijacking of a plane carrying dozens of Israelis and prompted Israel to scramble warplanes. The flight landed safely in Tabuk. 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.Flight Emergency and Landing in TabukFlightradar24 data shows the flight abruptly descended from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet, about 10,000 metres to 5,100 metres, in roughly one minute. It then made an erratic circle close to the Jordanian border before landing in Tabuk about an hour later. The 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. It was not immediately clear what caused the fight, the official said."The crew have been questioned as part of the investigation," the regional official added, but did not say if anyone had been detained. The aircraft's captain and the first officer were injured and taken to the hospital, according to a statement from Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk carried by Saudi state-run Alekhbariya television. A third official confirmed that Israel had scrambled warplanes, fearing a hijacking.Investigations and Israeli ResponseAll three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was still under investigation. Israeli media, citing security officials, said the incident stemmed from a feud between the plane's two pilots, and everyone on board was safe. The plane landed in Tabuk, a civilian and military base in the kingdom. The FlyDubai plane transmitted an emergency alert shortly after takeoff, according to publicly available flight-tracking information.The airport in Tabuk reported that a FlyDubai flight made a distress call at 8:44 a.m. local time, before landing safely at 9:45 a.m. local time. 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 later said the situation was under control and Israel was working to bring the passengers home. Emergency landings for personnel reasons are rare, yet not unheard of. In 2022, two Air France pilots were suspended after fighting in the cockpit on a Geneva-Paris flight, though it did not have to be diverted and landed as planned.Passengers Describe the IncidentPassengers on the plane told Israel's Channel 12 by phone that they heard shouts from passengers toward the front of the plane who heard the altercation between the pilots, and the plane dipped steeply before landing in Saudi Arabia. They also said all the passengers were staying on the plane and that there was a heavy presence of Saudi security forces surrounding them. Some passengers screamed when they heard a fight.FlyDubai later confirmed that Flight FZ 1073, en route to Ben Gurion, experienced an incident and landed safely in Tabuk on Wednesday."Our teams are working closely with the relevant authorities," the carrier said. "Further updates will be issued as additional confirmed details become available," the carrier said. FlyDubai is the lower-cost sister carrier of Emirates airlines. The U.A.E. has become a popular vacation destination for Israeli tourists since the countries normalized ties in 2020.Israelis and Saudi Emergency LandingsIsraelis were targeted in a string of hijackings and airplane attacks by Palestinian militants in the 1960s and 1970s. Israel has not experienced a hijacking in decades but maintains some of the strictest airport security in the world, including often invasive check-in procedures for Israel-bound flights. The emergency landing in Saudi Arabia was not the first for a plane carrying Israelis home.The kingdom does not have formal diplomatic ties with Israel, but ended its longstanding ban on Israeli flights overflying its territory in 2022. Since then, Saudi Arabia has coordinated multiple emergency landings for Israeli passengers, including in 2023 when a plane experienced an electrical malfunction.