A flydubai flight from Dubai to Ben Gurion transmitted an emergency code associated with a suspected hijacking. Fighter jets were scrambled and urgent security consultations were held in Israel. Then the plane landed safely in Saudi Arabia, it turned out there was no hijacking, and reports of a flydubai pilots fight began to circulate. The internet took it from there.
It was a tense few minutes this morning for the security establishment and for the families of the passengers. The aircraft changed course while flying over Saudi Arabia and sent out the code used to warn of a hijacking or unlawful interference with a flight.
In response to the unusual signal, fighter jets took off, Israeli security officials held a situation assessment, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz consulted urgently. The plane, reportedly carrying 174 passengers including 27 children, was directed to the Saudi city of Tabuk and landed safely.
Shortly afterwards the Prime Minister’s Office announced that the incident was not being defined as a hijacking and was not considered a security event.
What happened inside the cockpit?
According to initial reports published after the landing, a confrontation developed between the two pilots in the cockpit, and during it the emergency code was activated, apparently by mistake. That said, no full official inquiry has yet been published by the airline or by the Saudi authorities, so the exact circumstances are still being examined.
Either way, the idea that two crew members arguing in a cockpit could, within minutes, scramble fighter jets, convene the top of the defence establishment and put an entire country on alert gave the internet raw material it could not ignore.
The flydubai pilots fight, as told in memes
“Because our pilots don’t throw punches”
One of the images doing the rounds tied the incident to a made-up El Al advert. It shows two pilots shaking hands and smiling, next to the caption: “Because with us, the pilots don’t throw punches.”
It took no more than a few minutes from the first report of the confrontation for people to start producing their own versions of campaigns for rival airlines.
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A Sukkot prayer gets a new meaning
The holiday mood of Chol HaMoed Sukkot found its way in immediately. One cartoon shows two flydubai pilots wrestling in the cockpit under a line borrowed from the Hoshanot prayers, “Hoshana, the one given over to those who strike”, a pun that Hebrew speakers needed no help with.
The mix of a bizarre incident, the festival and the anxiety that had gripped Israel made it one of the most widely shared images of the morning in groups and on social media.
Even the logo did not survive
Another user decided few words were needed. He changed the company name from Flydubai to Fightdubai and swapped the aircraft icon for a boxing glove.
Sometimes a one-word joke is enough to sum up an entire event.
An unusual incident that still needs answers
Jokes aside, this was a serious aviation incident. Activating a hijack-related emergency code sets military and security systems in motion in several countries and can affect the airspace and other flights. The Dubai route is a busy one, too: flydubai recently added extra frequencies from Tel Aviv, and the flight between Israel and Dubai is a short one.
The authorities and flydubai are now expected to examine how the code was activated, what exactly happened in the cockpit and whether a confrontation between the two pilots really did take place. At the time of publication, the incident had ended safely and no injuries had been reported.
