A replacement flydubai aircraft has landed at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia to bring the passengers stranded following Wednesday’s dramatic mid-air incident back to Israel.

Flight-tracking data showed the replacement aircraft arriving in Tabuk, with Hebrew-language media reporting that passengers — most of them Israeli — have begun boarding for the flight to Israel.

The passengers had been stranded in Saudi Arabia after their original Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight was forced to make an emergency landing when the copilot allegedly stabbed the captain in what Israeli officials increasingly suspect was an attempt to crash the aircraft.

Israel had sought to dispatch its own rescue aircraft to Saudi Arabia to retrieve the passengers, but that option does not appear to have received Saudi approval.

Instead, flydubai dispatched another aircraft to Tabuk to collect the passengers and continue their journey to Israel.

(YWN Israel Desk — Jerusalem)