Felt like ‘massive turbulence’: Passengers recount chaos on flydubai flight

The plane, where a co-pilot stabbed his colleague, dropped more than 4,260m in 30 seconds, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24.

Passengers who were on the FlyDubai aircraft bound for Israel from the United Arab Emirates, which was diverted to Saudi Arabia following an emergency signal, arrive at the Ben Gurion International Airport, in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sep 30, 2026. (Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad)

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JERUSALEM: When flydubai flight FZ1073 suddenly plunged from over 30,000 feet (9,100m) on Wednesday (Sep 30), passenger Almog Italie said it felt like the plane was passing through "massive turbulence" before he realised a life-or-death struggle had unfolded in the cockpit.

Italie described passengers running to the front of the cabin and commotion in front of the cockpit, where Israel i officials said the co-pilot had stabbed the captain to try to crash the plane flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv with more than 170 Israel is on board.

"It was dropping like for 20, 30 seconds, and then balanced, and then started dropping again, and balanced again, and then we saw that (there) are people in the front, directly (in front of ) the cockpit," he told Reuters.

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