Tracking Data Shows Flydubai Jet Was Less Than 30 Seconds From The Ground

TABUK, SAUDI ARABIA (VINnews) — A Flydubai jet bound for Tel Aviv came within seconds of striking the ground during a violent cockpit incident Wednesday, according to a new analysis of the flight path released Friday.

The Boeing 737, operating as Flight FZ1073 from Dubai, was cruising near 34,000 feet over northern Saudi Arabia when it went into a steep dive. At the sharpest point, the descent rate exceeded 32,600 feet a minute, fast enough that the remaining altitude would have been gone in less than 30 seconds if the plunge had continued, according to granular tracking data shared by Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

The aircraft bottomed out at about 16,600 feet, still roughly 14,500 feet above the desert, before climbing, diving a second time and leveling off between about 13,700 and 15,400 feet. It later transmitted an emergency code and diverted to Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk, where it landed safely.

Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry said the plane arrived at 9:45 a.m. local time with 174 passengers and eight crew members. The ministry said the co-pilot assaulted the captain, that both pilots were taken to a hospital, and that they were flown to Abu Dhabi on Thursday with an Emirati security team after they were medically cleared. Passengers continued to their destinations later Wednesday on a replacement Flydubai aircraft.

Flydubai has described the episode only as an altercation on the flight deck and said the crew secured the aircraft and diverted it safely.

Israeli officials have given a sharper account. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Omani first officer stabbed Indian captain Smit Machchhar and tried to crash the plane. Passengers and crew forced their way into the cockpit and overpowered the attacker. Two off-duty Flydubai pilots who were aboard as passengers then helped land the jet.

Machchhar, speaking Friday in a video call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said he was lying injured on the cockpit floor when he realized the aircraft was going down. He said he made one last push to open the door from inside. “I was of course fighting for my own life, but at the same time I knew I was not going to let others die,” he said.

Most of the passengers were Israeli. Photos taken after the landing showed damage to the rudder on the tail.

The figures now circulating come from public flight-tracking readings, not a released copy of the cockpit voice recorder or flight data recorder. Those recorders, now in the hands of investigators, are expected to settle the exact descent rate, control inputs and sequence inside the cockpit. Motive has not been established.