Flydubai Refuses to Disclose Citizenship of Tel Aviv Flight Pilots

The airline flydubai refused to disclose information about the citizenship of the pilots of the flight Dubai — Tel Aviv, urgently boarded in Saudi Arabia because of the fight of the crew. A representative of the company told the Emirati newspaper The National.

“A spokesperson for flydubai told The National that the airline was unable to disclose the nationality of the two pilots,” The National said in a statement.

The carrier added that the circumstances will become clear after gaining access to the black boxes.

On the morning of September 30, flydubai's plane issued a distress call of 7700, followed by a code of 7500, which is used in possible hijacking. As the airline later confirmed, there was a fight between the pilots, because of which the board began to lose altitude and changed course. The plane managed to land in Saudi Arabia, while the liner suffered damage to the tail.

As reported by Israel Hayom, citing Israeli authorities, the plane was helped to land two pilots – citizens of Russia and Ukraine, who were passengers and were not part of the crew. However, the Russian Consulate General in Dubai, citing information received from flydubai, reported that there were no Russians on board the aircraft.

More than 170 people were on board, including Israeli citizens. After the incident, both pilots of flydubai flight were hospitalized. According to a source in the Hindustan Times newspaper, the pilot who was stabbed, Smith Machkhar, is an Indian citizen.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the goal of one of the pilots was likely to cause a plane crash, sending the plane into the ground. Similar versions were previously called Israeli Channel 12, Ynet and i24News.

“During the flight, while approaching Israel, one of the pilots stabbed another and apparently tried to steer the plane to the ground along with everyone on board,” Netanyahu said.

Defense Minister Yisrael Katz confirmed that the incident with the flydubai plane was an attempted terrorist attack. Israeli Transport Minister Miri Regev has called for the suspension of all flydubai flights to Israel.