A commercial plane travelling from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Israel was forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after briefly transmitting emergency codes, including one associated with a possible hijacking.
The FlyDubai plane transmitted an emergency alert shortly after takeoff, prompting Israel to scramble warplanes, according to publicly available flight tracking information.
Because the incident was still under investigation, both officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
A second official confirmed that Israel had scrambled warplanes, fearing a hijacking of a plane carrying dozens of its citizens. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned in recent days of unspecified, escalated security threats. ET. The incident prompted Israel’s prime minister and defence minister to hold a security consultation as Israeli fighter jets were scrambled.
The emergency signal was issued after the aircraft dropped 17,400 feet in altitude, from 34,000 to around 16,600 feet, over just two minutes at around 1:20 am Eastern Time, according to a CNN report. The first emergency signal was sent from the aircraft at 1:32 a.m.
Everyone on board was safe, according to the report. It wasn’t immediately clear what had caused the fight, the official said.
