A flydubai budget flight, FZ 1073, bound for Tel Aviv, experienced a rapid descent of 17,000ft in less than two minutes on Wednesday. The incident, which involved an apparent hijacking attempt, saw the plane's captain, Smit Machchhar, stabbed multiple times.
Passengers and crew reportedly gained entry to the cockpit and overpowered the co-pilot, an Omani national, who had attacked Captain Machchhar. Other crew members were able to stabilise the flight, and the Boeing 737 Max made a safe emergency landing in Saudi Arabia just before 11am local time on Wednesday. All 174 passengers on board escaped serious injury.
Saudi investigators detained the co-pilot upon landing and are cooperating with the United Arab Emirates, the US, Oman, and Israel to determine his motives and potential affiliations. The attacker's motives remained unknown as of yesterday, with international investigations continuing.