All passengers who survived an attempted hijacking of a Flydubai flight earlier on Wednesday landed safely at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, sparking celebrations.
After a passenger and crew member stormed the cabin and stopped the copilot from crashing the plane, other passengers and crew were able to stabilize the aircraft and make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. After a brief diplomatic tussle between Riyadh and Jerusalem over how to escort the passengers back home, they were loaded onto another Flydubai flight and flown back home, landing shortly before 7 p.m. local time after a 45-minute flight.
Footage taken by one of the passengers posted on social media showed them cheering and singing as the aircraft landed in Israel.
The crews of Magen David Adom, Israel’s Red Cross, who greeted the passengers, reported that no one required emergency medical attention. After meeting with these teams and other responders, the passengers are slated to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Transportation Minister Miri Regev.
Netanyahu already spoke with at least one of the passengers — the Israeli who broke into the cockpit to wrestle the hijacker away from the controls.
“I salute these heroes, who displayed extraordinary resourcefulness and courage,” Netanyahu said in his first video address after the incident. “They saved many lives and prevented a major disaster.”
NETANYAHU SAYS ONE PILOT STABBED THE OTHER AND TRIED TO CRASH FLYDUBAI PLANE
Netanyahu’s office said he ordered security on Israeli and non-Israeli carriers to “ramp up” in light of the incident. He also convened an emergency security meeting with his Cabinet members following the incident.
On Wednesday morning, a pilot on a flight to Israel stabbed his copilot, then apparently tried to crash the plane, according to Netanyahu. After a passenger and crew member subdued the pilot, another crew member entered the cockpit and stabilized the plane, landing it in Saudi Arabia. An Israeli official told Reuters that the copilot who tried to bring down the plane was an Omani national.