Image source, EPA

Following the updates from the Israeli government, we've also just received a statement from Flydubai, the operator of the plane where the incident took place.

A spokesman for the airline says "an altercation occurred in the flight deck" of flight FZ 1073, which was travelling from Dubai International to Ben Gurion International Airport on 30 September.

The aircraft was "successfully secured by on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight", who diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk Airport, it says.

All passengers and crew are safe and accounted for and the airline has deployed two replacement aircraft to Tabuk "to relieve the passengers and crew."

The operator adds that this incident has no impact on other scheduled flights across the flydubai network.

"At this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation."

The airline urged people to refrain from "premature speculation" and said its immediate priority was the safety, health, and wellbeing of all passengers and crew members.

The Israeli defence minster, Israel Katz, has said early indications show that one of the pilots had intended to crash the plane, killing everyone on board.

He said the incident was an "attempted jihadist terror attack", and praised Israeli passengers for overpowering the pilot.

Here is more from the Israeli prime minister's statement:

During the flight, as they were approaching Israel, one of the pilots stabbed the other pilot and, apparently, tried to crash the plane with its passengers on board.

I spoke with one of the Israeli passengers. He told me that the plane went into a spin and began to descend. He told me that, somehow, he managed to break into the cockpit with one of the crew members and, together, they overpowered the pilot who had carried out the stabbing while he was attempting to sabotage the aircraft's systems.

Another air crew who was on the plane entered the cockpit and managed to stabilise the aircraft.

I salute these heroes who demonstrated extraordinary resourcefulness and courage. They saved many lives and prevented a major disaster.

The plane landed safely at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia. All the passengers are now out of danger.

The pilot who carried out the stabbing was arrested and is currently being questioned by the Saudi authorities.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has given a statement on the Flydubai flight incident.

He says "the pilot who carried out the stabbing was arrested and is currently being questioned by the Saudi authorities".

We'll have the full statement in our next post.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Accounts from passengers on the plane are continuing to come in.

Talking to Israeli outlet Calcalist, Zvika Manes described the incident as incredibly "traumatic".

At the time of the altercation, his daughter was in the bathroom and his wife, who was standing near the cockpit, heard "shouting" and "screams".

She alerted a relief pilot to the situation, urging them to "get in" to the cockpit.

Manes said he subsequently entered the cockpit to help subdue the attacker, adding: "I'm covered in blood. It was crazy".

The BBC has not verified this account, but we're working to confirm the details on this developing story.

A Flydubai plane sent to recover the passengers stranded at Tabuk airport after a reported stabbing on a previous flight has landed.

The earlier Dubai to Tel Aviv flight (FZ1073) was diverted to Tabuk airport, in Saudi Arabia, after an emergency signal - and later a hijacking warning - was broadcast.

Flydubai reports that its recovery plane (FZ8455) landed in Tabuk at 12:43 BST (14:43 local time).

A passenger on the flight has told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the plane lost control and began to "dive" about an hour before the scheduled landing.

Dalia Shpigel told the paper that "suddenly there were terrible screams throughout the plane" before "three to five guys burst into the cockpit" and subdued the attacker and began treating the injured pilot.

"We realised that the situation was stabilising and continued the flight. Gradually, information began to emerge about what had happened in the cockpit," Shpigel said.

She said the "young men" then took charge and began tending to passengers as the plane altered its course to land in Saudi Arabia.

"Right now, we're all here in the terminal, and medical teams are examining us," she added.

The BBC has not verified this account. We're yet to receive an official statement confirming the nature of the incident and how many people were involved.

Incident comes at febrile time in Israel as elections approachpublished at 13:52 BST

13:52 BST

Sebastian Usher
Global affairs correspondent

The incident on the Flydubai flight comes at an even more febrile time than usual in Israel, with tightly contested elections just weeks away.

Whatever the facts turn out to be, it's bound to be used on all sides in the campaign.

The far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has, as expected, fired the first salvo, denouncing it as an attempted act of terrorism that shows that Israel must fight until all its enemies are defeated.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to send the same message. On Tuesday, he posted a video from an airbase warning that there were indications that Israel's enemies would mount an attack ahead of the elections.

One of his main opposition rivals, Yair Lapid has moved quickly to say that nothing in what Netanyahu said remotely resembled what has just happened. Another party leader, Avigdor Liebrman, has accused the government's supporters of trying to turn the incident into "political capital".

And in the midst of this, the air route between Israel and the UAE - which has been one of the fruits of Emiratis signing up to the Abraham Accords - has been put in doubt.

Transportation minister Miri Regev is reported to have demanded that all Flydubai flights should be suspended.

The diverted Israel-bound Flydubai airplane is one of the airline's 10 daily flight flights from Dubai to Tel Aviv.

The airline's first flights depart Dubai at 05:15 local time (02:00 BST), with the last one setting off at 19:15.

Ten flights also depart from Tel Aviv headed to Dubai each day, with the last one leaving Israel at 22:50 local time (20:50 BST).

The majority of direct flights on this route are chartered by Flydubai and scheduled to take three hours and 25 minutes. Other airlines, such as Arkia and Israir, also have flights on the route but they are not as frequent.

Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) established diplomatic relations in 2020 under a US-brokered deal known as the Abraham Accords. The deal resulted in the normalisation of relations between Israel and the UAE. Saudi Arabian airspace was blocked to Israeli air traffic before the deal.

A video shared by Israeli media appears to show a witness on board who says "an assailant with a knife" stabbed one of the pilots.

BBC Verify has checked the video, which shows no sign of AI manipulation and do not appear to have been posted online before the event.

In the video, the man, who is speaking to camera from a plane seat, says: "We took control of the flight and an assailant with a knife who stabbed one of the pilots."

He says they got the alleged assailant out of the cockpit, and everything is "okay now".

"There’s a pilot who’s seriously wounded.

"There’s another pilot who was also wounded but he’s managing to land the plane - he’s with two crew members we made sure to shut the door I love you and all is okay."

He adds that the reported suspect is neutralised.

We're yet to receive an official statement confirming the nature of the incident or how many people were involved.

Jon Donnison
Middle East correspondent in Jerusalem

As more eyewitness testimony comes in from the passengers on board, this is developing into an extraordinary and terrifying story.

The plane sent a signal saying it had been hijacked. But it now appears it was an attempted hijacking not by the passengers but one of the pilots.

People on board have described how the plane began to plummet 17,000ft (5,200m) in a matter of minutes.

There are reports there was a fight between the pilot and the co-pilot with at least one of them being stabbed.

One passenger said people then broke into the cockpit to help tackle one of the pilots and tie him down. Mobile phone video shows several people on board covered in blood.

Investigators will now be looking at whether one of the pilots intended to deliberately crash the aircraft and if so whether he was politically motivated.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has posted on social media about the incident, although he does not seem to be speaking on behalf of the government.

Ben-Gvir says a "terrorist… planned to crash a plane and murder" those on board.

He thanks the "heroic passengers", and says that Israel's "security doctrine" must go up a level, adding that the country must not stop until it has "total victory" on multiple fronts.

We have not heard much from the Israeli government, beyond an initial statement that the situation was under control and efforts were being made to bring passengers home.

Yair Golan, who leads Israel's left-wing Democrats party, praises the "brave" passengers on board, while denouncing the government for using the incident to "score cheap political points".

Warning: This post contains an image some readers may find distressing

A video shared by Israeli media seems to show someone on board the flight describing what happened.

BBC Verify has checked the video, which shows no sign of AI manipulation and does not appear to have been posted online before the event.

The man, who has blood on his face is filming himself, says: "We're here – the plane – we’ve just taken control of the terrorists. We’re about to land.

"Anyone who hears me: we need help. We’re landing in Tabuk."

He adds: "All onboard the flight are healthy and in one piece – aside from the pilot. We need help."

We're yet to receive an official statement confirming the nature of the incident or how many people were involved.

Image source, Reuters

Plane’s sudden altitude drop likely not accidental, expert sayspublished at 13:03 BST

13:03 BST

By Joshua Cheetham

BBC Verify has shared flight-tracking data with aviation experts to better understand what may have happened onboard the Flydubai plane, after it experienced an extreme fall and then rapid fluctuation in altitude in such a short period of time.

The data on Flightradar24 shows the aircraft initially plunged by about 17,000ft (5,200m), climbed 5,000ft and then fell another 7,000ft to settle into a relatively stable altitude of 15,000ft. All of this took place over the course of less than five minutes.

Marco Chan, a senior lecturer in aviation operations at Kingston University, says that while sudden drops in altitude can be caused by incidents like rapid decompression, the plane having transmitted an emergency code for “unlawful interference” suggests the drop was not accidental or down to a technical fault.

While it is still unclear what happened on board, Chan adds that the sudden changes in altitude may have been caused by the pilots jostling for control of the yoke - a wheel-like device that controls the plane’s steering.

As we reported earlier, passengers have been telling Israeli media that two pilots sat at the back of the plane helped land the aircraft after the altercation.

Another passenger, Almog Itali, tells the media these two pilots were "relief pilots" who were supposed to be operating a subsequent flight.

One of them was British, Itali says. He adds that the second relief pilot was European but did not specify their nationality.

Itali says the exact details of what happened in the cockpit are unclear but says the relief pilots stabilised the plane and landed it in Saudi Arabia.

"There are quite a few versions," he says after speaking to people from the front of the plane. "What is clear is that there were two pilots in the front - one stabbed the other."

We are yet to hear from officials regarding the details of what occurred on the flight - including the nationalities of those involved. Earlier, the company that owns Tabuk airport where the plane landed said the captain and first officer had sustained injuries.

What we know:

• Flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv was diverted to Saudi Arabia around two hours after take-off on Wednesday (see map below)

• An emergency signal - and later a hijacking warning - was set off shortly after an abrupt change of direction and rapid descent. The plane dropped 17,000 feet (5,200m) in just two minutes
• All passengers are safe and accounted for, according to airline Flydubai
• Following a distress call to air traffic control, the flight had an emergency landing at Tabuk airport at 08:44 local time
• The captain of the aircraft and first officer have been taken to hospital, the company that owns the airport says
• Passengers report that a pilot was stabbed in the cockpit. One passenger says two pilots at the back of the plane came forward to help land the plane - this has not been confirmed

And what we don't know:

• The motive of the apparent attack, and the extent of the injuries suffered by the captain and first officer
• The names or nationalities of anyone involved, including the pilots who suffered injuries, and those who landed the plane

• Witnesses describe seeing blood and a knife - but we do not know who attacked whom, or the exact weapon

• We are yet to receive official statements from police, emergency services, or investigators

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Reports are still emerging about what happened on board the Flydubai plane. Here is what witnesses and anonymous officials have said so far.

'They think they are going': There were panicked scenes as the plane plunged 17,000 feet - the mother of one passenger reports her saying "all the people, they scream, they think they are going"

'One pilot stabbed the other': Unnamed officials tell Israeli media that one pilot attacked the other with a knife, seemingly to "either hijack the plane... or crash it" - although it's important to state the motive has not been confirmed, and we are yet to get official statements

'Tied down': An Israeli passenger on board tells journalists the crew asked for help from passengers to tackle the attacker and tie him down

'Covered in blood': Witnesses have described violent scenes - one said "there are people here with shirts covered in blood"

'Take control': Two pilots who were at the back of the plane came forward to help land it, one passenger says: "I shouted at them to run and take control of the plane"

The company that owns Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia - where the plane was diverted - has just put out a statement.

It says both the captain and first officer on the Flydubai plane sustained injuries and were taken to the hospital. It does not state the cause of the injuries.

The airport's air traffic control centre received a distress call from the Flydubai plane at 08:44 local time, the statement says, during which the plane requested an emergency landing

The aircaft landed safely around an hour after, the statement adds.

We're getting reports that a recovery flight is on its way to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, to pick up passengers from the diverted Israel-bound flight.

According to Flightradar24, a separate Flydubai flight (FZ8455) set off from Dubai just before 12:56 local time (09:56 BST) and is due to land in Tabuk at 14:41 local time (12:41 BST).

The flight tracking company says that once the airplane lands in Tabuk, it will take passengers to Tel Aviv, their original destination.