‘Whoever is hearing me, we need help’: how flight 1073 survived its 17,000ft plunge

On morning service from Dubai to Tel Aviv, 150 passengers witnessed a horrific cockpit assault and a daring rescue

• Pilot who stabbed co-pilot on Israel-bound plane may have tried to crash it, says Netanyahu

As flight FZ 1073 soared west over the waters of the Gulf towards Israel, its passengers may have bemoaned a 20-minute delay at takeoff. For a low-cost airline route, flydubai’s daily service to Tel Aviv is usually convenient and reliable. The nonstop flight takes about three and a half hours and departs early enough from Dubai that it usually lands at Ben Gurion airport at about 9am local time.

That was not the case for Wednesday’s catastrophic flight. The passenger jet never made it to its scheduled destination. Instead, it dropped thousands of feet in seconds before limping down to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia – perhaps miraculously, since photos suggested a large part of the tail of the aircraft was missing.