Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the co-pilot of a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv tried to crash the plane after stabbing the pilot, but passengers then held him down while other pilots landed the plane safely in Saudi Arabia.
Describing the event as "a highly severe security incident," Mr Netanyahu said Saudi authorities would interrogate the co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 from the United Arab Emirates to Israel.
The alleged assailant, who an Israeli official identified as an Omani national, was arrested after the plane landed, Mr Netanyahu said.
"All passengers are out of harm's way," Mr Netanyahu, who described the passengers as being almost all Israeli, said in a video statement released by his office.
The Israeli leader quoted a passenger as saying that passengers along with a member of the crew broke into the cockpit after the aircraft "entered a tailspin and began to dive" and found the co-pilot "trying to sabotage the plane's systems".
"They saved many lives. They prevented a heavy disaster," he said.
An Israeli official had earlier said the plane transmitted emergency signals.
The aircraft's data appeared to show that it had suddenly and rapidly descended by nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds before a first emergency signal was sent, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
Around the time the plane landed in Saudi Arabia, Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister's office, said the incident was not believed to have been a hijacking, describing it as a "different incident".
The Israeli officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to brief reporters, said Israel's current assessment is that the incident was an attempted "terror attack" and not related to any kind of mental health issue with either of the pilots.
A passenger has said that one of the pilots attacked his co-pilot and tried to crash the plane to kill everyone.
Passenger Miryam Shira Ohayon said the plane was "pretty much out of control" when the stabbing took place over Jordan on the flight's path from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
"The co-pilot tried to murder the pilot and basically carry out a suicide attack on the plane," she told reporters by speakerphone held up by her mother who was waiting at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv.
"It was really on the way to crashing, and it was simply the resourcefulness of many people who took control of the co-pilot and neutralised him," she said.
"There was also a doctor who gave first aid, and people who treated both of them. Other than the pilot, there were no injuries, but the bigger fear was really a crash, which is exactly what he was trying to do."
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Two other pilots on board landed plane, says passenger
The passenger's mother, Yasmin Abukasis, said her daughter was on the flight to attend a service for her brother killed in the 7 October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.
The daughter "thought they were going to die", Ms Abukasis said, adding that one woman "went to the (cockpit) and saw a lot of blood".
She said that two other pilots were on the plane and took charge, diverting it to Saudi Arabia.
He did not immediately respond to a further request for comment on whether Israel was treating it as terror incident.
The two officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to brief reporters, said Israel's current assessment is that the incident was an attempted "terror attack" and not related to any kind of mental health issue with either of the pilots.
Saudi Arabia turned down a request by Israel to allow its planes to bring back the Israeli passengers, two security sources said.
The request was made to allow Israeli military planes to bring back Israelis from Saudi Arabia, which has no diplomatic relations with Israel, the sources said.
The Israeli air force was preparing to send Super Hercules planes to pick up Israeli passengers, one of the sources said.
Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia confirmed all passengers who were on board the original flight had departed on a replacement flight to their final destination.
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Flight plummeted before steadying again, tracking data shows
In a video purportedly of an Israeli passenger on board the flydubai flight and carried widely by Israeli media, the passenger said one of pilots was seriously injured and the other was slightly injured, after one of the pilots was stabbed.
Tabuk Airport, where the plane eventually landed safely, said that both pilots had been hospitalised after sustaining injuries. Neither the airport or the purported Israeli passenger identified the attacker.
Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv diverted to Saudi Arabia as it flew over Jordanian airspace, transmitting a general emergency signal and then another emergency signal that indicated possible unlawful interference, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
The Boeing 737 plane, which Israeli media said had around 150 Israeli passengers on board, then again transmitted the initial general emergency signal before later landing at Tabuk airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, the website said.
The aircraft's data appeared to show that it had suddenly and rapidly descended by nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds before the first emergency signal, Flightradar24 said.
It was not immediately clear who transmitted the emergency signals.
Conflicting reports appear in media, Israel holds security consultations
Israeli media published conflicting reports on the incident, with some outlets reporting that a pilot had tried to crash the passenger plane in an alleged suicide attempt.
Some Israeli media outlets identified the pilots as Omani and Emirati nationals, while others said they were Russian and Ukrainian.
The incident triggered a national security consultations in Israel, which has no official diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, where the plane landed.
In a statement, the Israeli prime minister's office said the situation was "under control" and that all measures were being taken to bring the Israeli passengers back to Israel.
The UAE is yet to comment on the incident, while the Dubai-owned airline has only said that the flight experienced an "incident" and diverted to Tabuk, where it landed safely, and that all passengers were safe and accounted for.
British pilot helped rescue plane - passenger
An off-duty British pilot helped to rescue a plane after a pilot stabbed his colleague in the cockpit and tried to crash the aircraft en route to Israel, a passenger has said.
Passengers and crew subdued the alleged attacker as the flydubai plane dropped from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet in about a minute.
The aircraft, travelling from the United Arab Emirates to Tel Aviv carrying dozens of passengers, was forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
One passenger, Almog Itali, has told media that one of the off-duty pilots onboard who stabilised the plane was British.
In a short translated clip on the BBC, Mr Itali said: "There were two pilots in the front, one stabbed the other, and there were two spare pilots who were supposed to operate the next flight.
"The relief pilots are European, one of them British, who entered [the cockpit] and pulled the aircraft up, pulled the yoke, stabilised the plane and landed us in Saudi Arabia."
