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 stabbed pilot, Indian national Capt Smit Machchhar, was hailed as a "hero" by the Israeli prime minister. He said Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to overpower the attacker as the aircraft descended sharply.

Flydubai flight FZ1073 took off from Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates at 03:05 GMT (07:05 local time) on Wednesday, en route to Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International Airport.

Data from flight tracking website Flightradar24 shows a rapid descent by the plane over Saudi Arabia around two and a half hours after take-off, dropping more than 17,000ft (5,180m) in less than two minutes, at around 05:21.

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.

At 06:58, the plane landed at Tabuk Airport in north-western Saudi Arabia.

He said an Israeli passenger told him that "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".

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Thursday that the alarm was initially raised by an Israeli woman, Tali Manes, who heard a commotion coming from the cockpit and alerted her fellow passengers, according to a statement from his office.

They overpowered the attacker while Hayun steadied the aircraft's controls, the president added. Once the attacker had been subdued, Musayev provided life-saving medical treatment to the seriously wounded pilot.

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

Paying tribute to Machchhar, Netanyahu hailed him as a "true hero" and said "he saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals".

"His valour helped save hundreds of lives and avert a great tragedy. India is proud of Captain Machchhar," he wrote on X.