Plane from Dubai to Tel Aviv lands safely after signalling emergency

Updated September 30, 2026 — 5:25pm,first published 4:50pmLondon: A commercial aircraft flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv has made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after issuing an alert that sparked fears of an imminent threat to hundreds of passengers and crew.The flight, flydubai FZ1073, landed safely amid a flurry of online speculation about the cause of the problem – including reports of an altercation between the pilots.Budget airline flydubai is owned by Dubai.iStockIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called urgent meetings to monitor the emergency after the aircraft issued a 7700 “squark” message that suggested it was the subject of unlawful interference.Israeli Air Force fighter jets were scrambled to head towards the aircraft before its landing.Amid growing concern about the threat, Israeli government officials told The Times of Israel and other media that it was not a hijacking.The Israeli Defence Forces chief of staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, held an assessment of the incident with senior officers, The Times of Israel reported.Flight tracking sites such as FlightRadar24 showed the aircraft initially flew over the southern part of the Persian Gulf before crossing over Saudi Arabia and heading towards Jordan and Israel.After crossing briefly into Jordanian airspace, it turned back to land at Tabuk, a city in the far west of Saudi Arabia.From our partners