Flydubai flight to Israel diverted to Saudi Arabia after emergency alert

Airline says plane experiences ‘incident’ en route from Dubai to Tel Aviv, lands safely at Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk airport.

A commercial plane travelling from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Israel has been forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

The Flydubai plane transmitted an emergency alert shortly after takeoff on Wednesday, according to publicly available flight tracking information.

The airline confirmed that the plane “experienced an incident while en route”, adding that it landed safely at Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk airport and all passengers are safe and accounted for.

It said more details will be shared later.

The incident that caused the plane to issue an “unlawful interference” alert was apparently due to an altercation between the pilots on board the flight, Israeli media outlets reported, quoting Israeli officials.

The Israeli military said in a statement that Israeli Chief of the General Staff Eyal Zamir held an assessment of the incident with senior officers after the reported incident.