What we know about stabbing on Flydubai flight to Israel

A flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv was diverted to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after one pilot stabbed the other and “apparently tried to crash the plane”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.

The pilot was arrested and is being questioned by Saudi authorities, Netanyahu added.

The plane’s captain and first officer were injured and taken to hospital, the company that owns the Saudi Arabian airport said, while the airline Flydubai confirmed all passengers are safe and accounted for.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has called the incident an “attempted jihadist terror attack”. The BBC is yet to receive official statements from police, emergency services, or investigators regarding any motive.

Here’s what we know.

Flydubai’s flight FZ1073 took off from Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates at 03:05 GMT (07:05 local time) en route to Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel.

The flight was carrying at least 150 people, with Netanyahu saying “almost all” passengers were Israeli.

Data from flight tracking website Flightrader24 shows a rapid descent for the plane over Saudi Arabia around two and a half hours after take-off, dropping more than 17,000 feet (over 5,000m) in less than two minutes at around 05:21.

Minutes later, the plane signalled an emergency code – squawk 7700 – before switching it to a squawk 7500 code reporting a hijacking.

At 05:40, the plane – which had briefly entered Jordanian airspace – looped back into Saudi Arabia, where it later started its manual descent for landing.

Less than an hour later, the plane returned to squawk 7700.

Initial local media reports cited Israeli officials as saying a fight had broken out between two pilots.

But, speaking on Wednesday following the incident, Netanyahu confirmed later reports that one pilot had stabbed the other before “apparently trying to crash” the plane.

He said an Israeli passenger told him “the plane went into a spin and began to descend” before the passenger and a crew member broke into the cockpit and overpowered the “pilot who had carried out the stabbing”.

The plane was diverted to Tabuk Airport in northeastern Saudi Arabia and touched down at 06:58, according to location data.

Passengers on board the flight have been talking to various media outlets. BBC News has not been able to verify their accounts.

Yasmin Abukasis told Reuters that her daughter – who was on the flight – said a man holding a knife had forced one of the pilots onto the floor, and that there was blood everywhere.

Speaking from Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, she said her daughter phoned her to say she heard screaming on the plane as a pilot called for help, adding that two other pilots took control of the plane as other passengers ran towards a man who had a knife.

“The plane start to lose control. So all the people, they scream, they think they are going,” Abukasis told AP news agency.

Passenger Zvika Meness told Israeli public broadcaster Kan News that his young daughter was in the toilet, and his wife accompanying her, when they heard shouting coming from the cockpit.

An additional crew member who was also a pilot went into the cockpit, and that is when they saw the stabbing, Meness said. He and two other people restrained the attacker, he added.

“We jumped on him; three of us jumped on him forcefully, and we tied him up with his own zip ties and with the multimedia headphones. That is how we neutralised him – resourcefulness, and that’s it.”

Another pilot who was in the passenger cabin then went in to help land the plane.

Almog Itali, who was also on board the flight, told media one of the pilots who landed the aircraft was British. The other pilot was European, Itali said, although he did not provide a specific nationality.

One female passenger described the “very stressful” moment people realised the plane was descending. “We understood the pilots lost control,” she told Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom.

“There are people here with shirts covered in blood,” she said, adding: “Now we are fine and want to return home.”

Meness also said “there are children and families here who have been through a very severe, highly traumatic event”.

Shortly after the incident, the Israeli and Saudi Arabian air forces dispatched fighter jets, while Netanyahu held urgent consultations.

Speaking later on Wednesday, Netanyahu called the situation a “a very serious security incident”.

He added Israeli security forces are “maintaining close contact with the relevant authorities to ensure the continued safety of the passengers”.

“I salute these heroes who demonstrated extraordinary resourcefulness and courage,” he added. “They saved many lives and prevented a major disaster.”

Flydubai meanwhile said “an altercation occurred in the flight deck” and the flight was “successfully secured by on-duty Flydubai crew travelling on the flight, who diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk airport”.

The airline said two replacement aircraft were sent to Tabuk to relieve the passengers and crew, and the incident had no impact on other scheduled operations.

The repatriation flight carrying passengers left Tabuk at 17:40 local time (14:40 GMT) and arrived in Tel Aviv at around 18:40 local time (15:40 GMT).

The spokesperson added: “Our immediate priority is to ensure the ongoing safety, health, and wellbeing of all passengers and crew members involved in this incident and support the official investigation.”