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 pilot who attacked his colleague on Flydubai flight FZ1073 is an Omani national, who was arrested after the emergency landing and is being questioned by Saudi authorities, according to Netanyahu.

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.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz called the incident an "attempted jihadist terror attack". But authorities have not yet issued any statements regarding the attacker's motive.

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.

The Boeing 737 MAX aircraft was carrying more than 170 people, with Netanyahu saying "almost all" passengers were Israeli.

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.

Minutes later, the plane signalled a "general emergency" code, squawk 7700, before switching to squawk 7500, a code reporting "unlawful interference", or hijacking.

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.

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

Initial Israeli media reports cited Israeli officials as saying a fight had broken out between two pilots. But on Wednesday afternoon, Netanyahu confirmed later reports that one pilot had stabbed the other before "apparently trying to crash" the plane.

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.

Manes' husband, Zvika, along with three other Israeli men - Yaniv Hayun, Dr Shota Musayev and Asaf Rajuan - rushed to assist and entered the cockpit door, which Machchhar had opened after being attacked, Herzog said.

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.

An on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight were then able to enter the cockpit and managed to stabilise the plane before landing it safely at Tabuk.

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.

The stabbed pilot is in a stable condition in hospital in Tabuk, according to the Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia.

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".

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also praised Machchhar's actions.

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

In an interview with the BBC, fellow passenger Almog Itali described the moment he realised that something was wrong.

"Suddenly the aeroplane started to, like a rollercoaster, to drop down [with] a massive G-force. It was falling down for 20 or 30 seconds, rapidly, and then balanced, and then started once again to fall down," he said.

He added: "We saw that people were rushing to the cockpit. Apparently, one of the pilots stabbed the other one. A couple of passengers and crew members took over and knocked [him] down. And the third pilot managed to take over the aeroplane and to balance it."

Itali described the passengers who subdued the attacker as "real heroes".

"They are very brave, they're like, they literally saved our lives. For sure. And we thank them all day long. They are our heroes."

Yaniv Hayun, who was greeted on arrival at Ben Gurion airport by Netanyahu, said in a video released by the prime minister's office that he and others tried to open the cockpit door, but the stabbed pilot was very close to it.

Before he collapsed, the injured man managed to open the door, Hayun said.

He said that inside, the attacker was "trying to destroy the instruments in order to disable the plane".

Hayun then described putting the attacker in a chokehold and pulling him outside the cockpit before other passengers helped to pin him down.

He added that he "pulled the controls" of the plane, explaining to Netanyahu that he watches the Canadian documentary series Air Crash Investigation. "The plane started to level out, a bit more, and then [another] pilot told me he was taking control from there."

Zvika Manes told Israeli public broadcaster Kan that he and other passengers tied the attacker up "with his own zip ties and with the multimedia headphones".

"There are children and families here who have been through a very severe, highly traumatic event," he added.

Rajuan was meanwhile quoted by the Israeli president's office as saying: "We felt helpless, suspended in midair, and I didn't know who to turn to. But it was all instinct: to survive, to save the family, the people, and the children."

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday evening, the Israeli prime minister said the stabbed pilot, passengers and second crew had "managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster".

He also said that the pilot who attacked his colleague was from Oman and that he expected the man to be taken back to the UAE once he had been interrogated by Saudi authorities. "We'll be following and possibly also participating in this investigation," he added.

Netanyahu said Israel did not have any warning or advance intelligence about the incident. "What we had was a lot of information streaming in that Iran's proxies, in particular Hezbollah and Hamas, were planning attacks against Israel and Israeli civilians abroad," he explained.

Asked by Fox News whether there was any indication of Iran's involvement, he replied: "It's too early to say."

Investigators are looking into the motives of the attacker, including whether he was connected to a state actor or armed group.

On Thursday, Netanyahu told Fox that, after being subdued, the attacker called out to the crew, "Kill me, kill me!" He added: "So, it's clear that he was suicidal… It looks very likely that he was going to down the plane."

He also said the attacker "underwent Islamist radical indoctrination".

The UAE's foreign ministry said a team of public prosecutors had been ordered to examine "all circumstances and motives surrounding the incident, including any possible connection to terrorist activity or intent, and whether it involved prior planning or direction", according to state news agency WAM.

Flydubai said in a statement that the underlying reasons and motives behind the incident remained unknown and warned against "premature speculation".

The airline also said it had suspended flights to and from Israel while the investigation continued.

Israeli authorities are also increasing security checks on pilots flying to the country in response to the incident.

The incident has heightened security fears in Israel ahead of the third anniversary of the deadly Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023, which triggered the Gaza war, and a general election later this month.