Flydubai flight diverted to Saudi Arabia after pilot stabbing and alleged crash attempt

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

The Flydubai plane - which took off from Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates early on Wednesday morning - signalled an emergency alert two hours into the flight.

Tracking data also showed a sudden drop in the plane's altitude.

Flight FZ1073 was forced to change course from its route to Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel and instead landed at Tabuk Airport in northeastern Saudi Arabia.

On arrival, accounts from passengers to local media detailed a stabbing in the cockpit of the plane.

In an address after the incident, Netanyahu confirmed the stabbing and said a passenger and crew member broke into the cockpit and overpowered "the pilot who had carried out the stabbing".

The pilot was arrested and is being questioned by Saudi authorities, the prime minister said.

The plane's captain and first officer were injured and taken to hospital, the company that owns Tabuk Airport said. It did not say what caused the injuries.

Flydubai said "an altercation occurred in the flight deck" and all passengers are safe and accounted for. The flight was carrying at least 150 people, with Netanyahu saying "almost all" passengers were Israeli.

Here's what we know.

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 added that 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 touched down at Tabuk Airport in northeastern Saudi Arabia, according to location data at 06:58.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz called it an "attempted jihadist terror attack". The BBC is yet to receive official statements from police, emergency services, or investigators regarding the motive of the attack.

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.

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."

Another unnamed passenger told the Jerusalem Post that while passengers near the front of the plane forced the attacker from the cockpit after the stabbing of the co-pilot, two pilots from the back of the plane helped land the aircraft.

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.