Israel-bound flight diverted after fight between pilots

Alex Ritzen (0:00)

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritzen and on Wednesday 30th September, these are our main stories. An Israel-bound passenger jet sends out a hijack alert as one pilot reportedly stabs the other before being overpowered. Russia pounds energy facilities in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and surrounding areas. We hear how children in Gaza are coping in the territory which is still under near-daily attack.

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Alex Ritzen (0:46)

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A passenger plane flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv carrying about 170 people had to divert to Saudi Arabia after the pilot was reportedly stabbed. Israeli and Saudi fighter jets were scrambled when the plane transmitted a code used to indicate a hijacking. Israeli media is reporting that the co-pilot is thought to have grabbed the pilot and attempted to crash the plane. Yasmine Aboukassis was waiting at Tel Aviv Airport for her daughter Miriam, who was on the flight.

Yasmine Aboukassis (1:29)

The plane start to lose control, so all the people, they scream, they think they are going. And after a few minutes, two other pilots, they took the control. And a few Israelis, they ran away to the guy. He took a knife, they take his hand and put him on the floor.

There was a lot of blood around. She said, it's crazy, crazy time. It's very hard to explain what happened there, but it was big stress.

Alex Ritzen (2:03)

Amogh Itali was also on the flight.

Amogh Itali (2:08)

I spoke with several people who were in the cockpit, and there are quite a few versions. It's unclear how the cockpit door was opened, whether someone from the crew opened it so help could come, or if it was forced open. It is unclear. What is clear is that there were two pilots in the front, one stabbed the other, and there were two spare pilots who were supposed to operate the next flight. The relief pilots are European, one of them British, who entered and pulled the aircraft up, pulled the yoke, stabilized the plane, and landed us in Saudi Arabia.

Alex Ritzen (2:42)

Our Global Affairs reporter, Sebastian Usher, told us what we know so far.

Sebastian Usher (2:47)

Everyone's trying to piece together the narrative of the moment from all the elements that are there. Of course, passenger testimony being verified is going to be key to it. This was something which was set off when there was a code emergency warning from this flight, which one that there was trouble on board and the other, that it was a hijack code.

There was an immediate response both from the Saudis and the Israelis. This was over Saudi airspace to scramble jets to try and deal with that. As you were saying in your introduction there, it was brought down safely in a Saudi airport, Tabuk Airport. There is some damage to the back of a plane that's visible. It also plunged at one point by about 10,000 feet.

This was an extraordinary incident, whatever the reason, whatever motivation behind it. One of the videos that we've just verified at the BBC shows two bodies lying on the floor. Now, not bodies of dead people, bodies of people who have been wounded. They appear to be the pilot, potentially the copilot. There is blood spattered around them. We've heard from the airport authorities that both the pilot and the copilot are in hospital and being treated. We know that a very serious incident happened. We know that there have been no actual deaths. We don't think from what we know so far that it involved other people directly in the confrontation. But we don't know 100% how it was subdued. Report we heard there from that passenger has been backed up by other reports that we heard that other crew managed to get into the cabin and resolve the situation. And then the plane was able to be flown to a safe landing.

Alex Ritzen (4:26)

And that is an extraordinary thing in itself, because you're not supposed to be able to get from the main body of the aircraft into the cockpit. Although in this instance, if what we're hearing is correct, well, this is the crew.

Sebastian Usher (4:37)

This is the crew. Now I'm not an expert in aviation, but one assumes that the crew has the ability to do that if there's something going on inside of a cockpit. Obviously passengers themselves wouldn't be able to do that. And there are some passengers who have talked about that they were involved in this as well, which may be the case. There's one still of a passenger with blood on his t-shirt. There's video also of the landing, where the passengers who would be almost all Israeli. I mean, I've flown that flight between Dubai and Israel. It's a very popular flight for Israelis who go to visit the UAE ever since it joined the Abraham Accords.