India, Oct. 1 -- Aviation experts are in disbelief that a flydubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 survived a plunge of thousands of feet in less than a minute and landed safely in Saudi Arabia after a violent mid-air cockpit confrontation.

Flight FZ1073 was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv with 174 passengers on Wednesday when a fight between the two pilots escalated into a life-threatening emergency. The aircraft plunged about 16,000 feet, dropping from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet in roughly a minute. The sharpest drop of 14,125 feet occurred in just 29 seconds, as per flightradar24 data.

According to news agency AP, aviation experts were surprised the plane did not crash after a descent so extreme that most of the rudder was ripped off the tail.

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