Summary:
A flydubai-operated flight from Dubai International Airport to Tel Aviv was forced to divert to Saudi Arabia for an unscheduled landing on Wednesday morning due to what the airline described as "an incident en route to Israel."
"The aircraft landed safely in Tabuk and all passengers are safe and sound," the airline said in a statement. A government statement said Israeli Transport Minister Miriam Regev had assessed the situation with all parties involved and was closely monitoring the incident, which is currently being handled by security officials.
It is unclear the nature of the problem during the flight, and authorities did not elaborate on what caused the flight to be diverted.
According to the flight tracking website Flightradar, flight FZ1073 first sent the general emergency code 7700, and then switched to the 7500 code indicating illegal interference, suggesting that a hijacking incident may have occurred. The aircraft then switched back to code 7700, the agency said.
Tabuk is located in northwest Saudi Arabia, close to the Jordan-Saudi border. Flydubai said its team is working closely with relevant authorities to discuss next steps.
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