Footage taken by one of the Israelis on the flydubai rescue flight shows passengers cheering and singing as their plane touches down at Ben Gurion Airport after their earlier flight made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia due to an apparent attempt to hijack and crash the plane.
There are reportedly 174 passengers, 166 of them Israeli, on the rescue flight, which departed Saudi Arabia after six hours in Saudi Arabia. Some were given medical treatment in the terminal.
Some of the passengers were unwilling to board this second flydubai plane for the journey. Israel had wanted to send its own planes to bring them home, but the Saudi authorities refused.
Mossad officials approved the plane’s flight crew, and the passengers then agreed to board, Channel 12 reports.
Inside the Ben Gurion Airport terminal, the passengers and the relatives meeting them sing, “The people of Israel live,” amid hugs, cheers and clapping.
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