What we know about the terrifying flydubai flight to Israel

One pilot stabbed another and attempted to crash a flight from the United Arab Emirates to Israel, according to Israel's prime minister.

Passengers, many of them Israelis, feared for their lives as the flydubai aircraft lost half its altitude in about a minute.

As Israel scrambled fighter jets out of concern for a possible hijacking, a passenger and crew member entered the cockpit to subdue the attacker and other crew members gained control of the aircraft, which landed safely in Saudi Arabia.

It was not clear what motivated the attack.

The terrifying flight occurred just days before the anniversary of the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that launched the war in Gaza.

The airline said in a statement that the underlying reasons for the event remained unknown and warned against "premature speculation."

Flydubai also said it was suspending flights to and from Israel while an investigation continues.

Here's what we know about what happened on flydubai flight FZ1073:

A fight, an alert and a rapid descent

The distress call came at 8:44am on Wednesday, local time, about two and a half hours after the flight with about 170 passengers left Dubai and headed to Tel Aviv.

The captain and first officer had been fighting in the cockpit after one tried to stab the other and crash the aircraft, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The aircraft swiftly lost altitude, dropping from around 10,000 metres to 5,100 metres in the span of about a minute.

It then circled close to the Jordanian border before landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, about an hour later.

Both pilots suffered injuries that required hospital treatment, according to a statement from Tabuk's Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport.

Mr Netanyahu said Saudi Arabia had arrested one of the pilots.

A plane carrying passengers from the flight landed on Wednesday evening in Israel.

Passengers and crew wrest control

A passenger and a crew member managed to enter the cockpit, enabling other crew members to fly the plane to a safe landing, according to Mr Netanyahu, who cited a passenger he had spoken to.

The cockpit door on all aircraft is locked during flight for security reasons — a measure that became the industry standard after the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which hijackers broke into the cockpits of four domestic flights in the United States.

Mr Netanyahu said on X that the pilot who had been stabbed opened the cockpit door, which "enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster."

The wounded captain was identified by the Israeli leader's office as Smit Machchhar, an Indian national. The Israeli prime minister described him as a "true hero" and wished him a speedy recovery.

Mr Netanyahu's office later released a video showing the prime minister at Ben Gurion Airport giving a hug to another passenger, Yaniv Hayoun, who his office said "broke into" the cockpit.

"I see you and I see a lion — a big hero," Mr Netanyahu told the man, who was still wearing the blood-stained shirt he had on during the flight.

What security checks do pilots undergo?

One question surrounding this incident is how anyone on the aircraft — especially a pilot — was able to get a knife onboard.

It's unclear how big the knife was that was used in the attack.

Pilots undergo rigorous screening, including passing through metal detectors, at checkpoints at all airports. It's also standard for airlines to vet their pilots' background for criminal and employment history, their physical and mental health, as well as having them undergo intelligence and security screening.

Israel has some of the most stringent airline security measures worldwide. Passengers on Israel-bound flights regularly are taken aside for questioning and baggage searches after passing through normal airport security.

There have been extremely rare occasions when airline security protocols fail. In 2015, the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 locked the captain out of the cockpit and deliberately set the plane on a collision course with a mountainside, killing all 150 people aboard.