A flydubai co-pilot stabbed the captain and tried to crash a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight before passengers subdued him and other pilots safely landed the aircraft in Saudi Arabia, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday.
The alleged assailant, who an Israeli official identified as an Omani national, was arrested after the plane landed, Netanyahu said.
"All passengers are out of harm's way," 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 told Reuters 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.
In a video purportedly of an Israeli passenger on board the flydubai flight and carried widely by Israeli media, the passenger said one of the pilots was seriously injured and the other was slightly injured, after one of the pilots was stabbed.
Saudi Arabia's Tabuk airport, where the plane eventually landed safely, said that both pilots had been hospitalized 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.
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 attempted 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 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.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday met with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during a a rare visit to the Gulf country. Israel and the UAE have forged close security, military and economic ties since establishing diplomatic ties in 2020.
Earlier this year, Israel provided the UAE with Iron Dome air-defense systems and Israeli personnel to operate them, helping defend against Iranian attacks launched in retaliation for Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran.
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.
Yasmin Abukasis said her daughter Miriam, who was among the passengers on the flight, had told her that she had heard screaming and that a man holding a knife had forced one of the pilots onto the floor, and that there was blood everywhere.
Israeli media published a photo purportedly taken from inside the plane, which appeared to show a passenger's blood-soaked shirt. Reuters could not immediately verify the image.
Flydubai operates daily return flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv, a route that is popular among Israeli nationals. The flight path normally uses airspace over Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
It is not the first time a flight between Israel and the UAE has landed in Saudi Arabia. A flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Riyadh in September 2025 due to a medical incident, Israeli media reported at the time.
