Graphic footage appears to show bloodied pilotspublished at 18:41 BST

18:41 BST

By Shayan Sardarizadeh

BBC Verify has examined a graphic video which appears to show the pilots of the Flydubai flight covered in blood near the cockpit.

The footage shows two men wearing oxygen masks on the floor. One appears to have a yellow strap secured around his chest, while the other is topless. Blood can also be seen on a door behind them.

While we have not been able to determine the precise location of the flight when the video was filmed, there are several indicators pointing to it being authentic.

At least two men are wearing blue and white checked shirts which match Flydubai cabin crew uniforms.

The crew are watching over the injured men. Someone asks in English “how much time we need?” and the topless man is urged to stay awake.

Two men, who appear to be passengers, can be seen speaking in Hebrew. Both are identifiable in other imagery from the flight.

One is wearing a bloodied white T-shirt and tells the person filming they are “in the cockpit” guarding the pilot and adds ”we were attacked”.

The other, who has a visible head wound, says: “They attacked us on this plane. They tried to kill the pilot. We took control.”

Another passenger who has been speaking to journalists outside the airport says the incident on board lasted maybe five minutes but felt "like hell".

Oran Choen says he heard "Allahu Akbar" being shouted before the plane started to dive, about an hour before the flight was due to land - he does not specify who he heard say "Allahu Akbar".

"I can't tell you the feelings I felt in that moment... I am 18 years old... it was a very tough moment," he says.

"Maybe it was five minutes but it feels like hell - I heard my brother behind me scream that we was going to die," he adds.

Getting emotional, he says it was a "very bad moment".

Image source, Netanyahu/X

We can bring you more from Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting with one of the passengers, Yaniv, whom the PM says "broke into the cockpit".

Netanyahu describes him as "a hero" and asks how he did it.

"We are a nation of lions, aren't we?" the passenger says.

Netanyahu says he sees "a great hero" and pointing to the bloodstain on the shirt, says: "Wow, is that from him?," to which the passenger replies: "It's from him, yes."

"It's simply unbelievable what you did," Netanyahu says.

Explaining more about how he broke through the door, Yaniv explains: "The pilot who was stabbed was simply very close to the door, so it was hard for us to open it."

But he says "before he (the stabbed pilot) collapsed" he managed to open the door.

"When I entered, I saw the attacker on the instruments, between the two seats... there were no pilots in the seats.

"One was down, one was on the instruments. And another guy came in with me. I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold, and pulled him - first and foremost - outside."

He says the attacker was "trying to destroy the instruments in order to disable the plane".

Yaniv then says he called out "to the Israeli guys with us on the plane", and together they "pinned him down to keep him secure".

Yaniv also says he "pulled the controls [of the plane]".

"You pulled the controls?" Netanyahu responds.

"I watch Air Crash Investigation, Mr Prime Minister," Yaniv replies. "And the plane started to level out, a bit more, and then the pilot told me he was taking control from there."

Image source, Israeli Prime Minister's Office

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met passengers at Ben Gurion airport after they got off their repatriation flight.

A video on his official social media account shows him hugging and greeting passengers. One of the men has a bloody stained t-shirt.

The caption says he met "Yaniv, who broke into the cockpit on the flight from Dubai to Israel".

"The most terrifying moment in this flight was when the pilot loses control" passenger Haim Lazarovich tells journalists as he makes his way through Ben Gurion airport.

He tells Reuters that he was with his wife and young son on the flight, and feared for their lives.

"Thank God I'm alive," he adds.

Image source, Getty Images

As passengers disembark the recovery flight from Saudi Arabia, they are being met with crowds of onlookers playing music, singing, dancing and waving Israeli flags.

The initial flight, from Dubai to Tel Aviv, was diverted to Tubak, in Saudi Arabia, for an emergency landing following the stabbing of a pilot onboard.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, APTN

Image source, Reuters

Image source, APTN

Jon Donnison
Middle East correspondent in Ben Gurion Airport

We haven't heard from relatives yet as most journalists are being kept outside at the airport, away from the relatives of those on the flights.

There's a crowd of around 100 journalists waiting outside the small terminal at the airport. The plane would normally have landed at the much-larger main terminal but it's a bit quieter here.

As around the world, this has obviously grabbed a huge amount of attention and there is a real interest to talk to the passengers on board.

Gabriela Pomeroy
Live reporter

I have just spoken to a medic who greeted the passengers off the plane.

Arye Myers from the Magen David Adom Israeli ambulance service told me he assessed passengers on the tarmac after they came down the steps from the plane.

“We met the passengers off the plane and did an initial medical assessment. They have been taken to a special terminal and are now leaving."

He says a few people have minor injuries.

"So far, just one required hospital treatment so we sent him to hospital. He was injured in the tussle on the plane and had injuries to his wrist.

"All the passengers walked off the plane under their own steam. A couple of them had some bandaging.

"A number of people were very emotional and crying as they came off the plane. You could sense the relief that they finally landed. Some of them told me it was great to be home and happy the ordeal was over."

We're now seeing images of passengers walking through the airport in Tel Aviv, after disembarking the plane that left Saudi Arabia earlier.

You can watch our coverage live at the top of the page - and we'll bring you comments from the passengers as soon as we have them.

The plane carrying the passengers of the earlier diverted Dubai to Tel Aviv flight has been pictured on the tarmac of Israel's Ben Gurion airport.

Israeli officials and security personnel can also been seen waiting at the arrivals terminal for the passengers to disembark.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reauters

Michael Shuval
BBC Arabic, at Ben Gurion Airport

Here at Ben Gurion Airport’s Terminal 1, the atmosphere shifted noticeably this evening after confirmation that the aircraft carrying all passengers had departed Saudi Arabia for Israel.

As news of the flight's departure spread, more family members began arriving at the greeting and information centre.

Preparations for the arrival remain relatively limited. A few ambulances are positioned nearby as a precaution, while nearly two dozen television crews, photographers and reporters from Israeli and international media outlets crowd the area.

Elsewhere, the airport remains busy. Israel is in the middle of the Sukkot holiday, one of the busiest travel weeks of the year, and passenger traffic continues to flow through the terminals despite the intense interest surrounding this incident.

Some Israelis boarding Flydubai flights from Tel Aviv to Dubai this afternoon told the BBC they were initially concerned after hearing reports of the security scare onboard. But after weighing the situation, they decided not to cancel their holiday plans and continued with their trips as scheduled.

For the families gathering here tonight, the mood is no longer dominated by uncertainty. After nearly nine hours of waiting for news, anxiety is gradually giving way to relief as they prepare to welcome their loved ones home.

Image source, Reuters

Passengers from the Flydubai flight have landed in Tel Aviv, hours after their scheduled arrival.

The repatriation flight left Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, at 17:40 local time (14:40 GMT, 15:40 BST).

We'll bring you the latest on this story as soon as we have more.

Image source, Reuters

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has thanked the "heroes" who "acted with immense courage" on the flight to Tel Aviv that was diverted to Saudi Arabia.

"Hours of worry ended in a great miracle and exceptional heroism," he writes on X, as a recovery flight makes its way to Israel.

"I strengthen the spirits of the plane's passengers making their way back home, and thank from the depths of my heart the heroes who acted with immense courage in these critical moments," he adds.

"We will continue to act together with our Emirati partners to learn from the event and fight terrorism."

Medics are waiting outside Israel's Ben Gurion airport where passengers whose plane was diverted earlier following a stabbing are due to arrive.

Once they land, they will all be given medical checks and any necessary additional care, emergency officials say.

Image source, EPA

Passengers from the Flydubai plane involved in today's incident have now departed Saudi Arabia, airport operator Cluster2 says.

They left Tabuk airport at 17:40 local time (14:40 GMT, 15:40 BST), according to the Saudi operator.

As we reported earlier, Flydubai airline had sent two replacement planes to Tabuk "to relieve the passengers and crew".

The original flight had been travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv before being diverted to Saudi Arabia as this attack unfolded.

Michael Shuval
BBC Arabic

Israel Ohayon’s sister, Miriam Ohayon, was on board the Flydubai flight that was diverted to Saudi Arabia after one of the pilots was stabbed.

Speaking to BBC Arabic at Israel's Ben Gurion airport, the flight's planned destination, he says there is a feeling of "helplessness, complete uncertainty".

Ohayon says his sister reported "a lot of pressure and panic" with passengers feeling that they were "staring death in the face".

He says his sister was sitting "directly behind" the pilots and "saw everything" that happened - adding that "a few Israelis took initiative" and subdued the attacker.

"Mentally, she’s not in a good state. We lost our brother on October 7, 2023, so this brings us back a little to that time," Ohayon adds.

Charlotte Hadfield
Live reporter

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

An Israel-bound plane plummeted 17,000ft in two minutes after one pilot stabbed another pilot and apparently tried to crash the plane, according to Israel's prime minister.

Benjamin Netanyahu says he has spoken to an Israeli passenger onboard the Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv who described how the plane "went into a spin and began to descend".

The passenger told him 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 crew member "entered the cockpit and managed to stabilise the aircraft", Netanyahu says, as he praised the "heroes" who "saved many lives and prevented a major disaster".

In a new statement, Flydubai, says the plane was "successfully secured" by on-duty crew travelling on the flight who "diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk airport".

The motives behind the attack remain unknown and are subject to a formal investigation, the airline says.

The pilot believed to have carried out the stabbing has been arrested and is being questioned by authorities in Saudi Arabia, according to Netanyahu.

A series of extraordinary witness accounts have emerged, including from one passenger who described hearing "terrible screams throughout the plane" before "three to five guys burst into the cockpit" and subdued the attacker.

The incident comes at an even more febrile time than usual in Israel, with tightly contested elections just weeks away - it's bound to be used on all sides in the campaign,writes our global affairs correspondent Sebastian Usher.

Image source, Reuters

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations says a "heroic" pilot on the diverted Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv "fought like a lion" to protect passengers.

"The Israeli passengers on today's flight from Dubai showed extraordinary determination and resourcefulness, helping prevent a major disaster," Danny Danon writes on X.

"Thank you to the heroic Emirati pilot, who fought like a lion and protected the lives of the passengers," he adds.

"I wish him a speedy recovery and a safe journey home for all the passengers."

Noa Shpigel, a journalist at the Haaretz newspaper, has been telling the BBC that her 74-year-old mother was travelling on the Flydubai plane. She was on her way back to Israel after a trip to Nepal, travelling from Kathmandu via Dubai.

Noa says when she heard the news she checked the flight number and realised her mother was on the plane.

She has spoken to her mother who described how "they started to understand that something was wrong as the plane started to jump in the air and it started to dive down".

"They understood very quickly that something was going on very wrong in the cockpit."

Noa’s mother told her that several young Israeli men who were sitting at the front of the plane went into the cockpit and took control, she said.

It was a "really tough experience".

Video shows passengers shouting and moving to front of planepublished at 15:08 BST

15:08 BST

By Joshua Cheetham and Emma Pengelly

BBC Verify has checked a video showing some passengers onboard a Flydubai aircraft move towards the front of the plane, while others can be heard shouting.

In the clip, people ask what is going on, as well as reacting to others panicking and saying they don't know.

While we have not managed to match the passengers in the footage to those seen in other imagery, the layout and design of the seats are consistent with a Flydubai Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and the video has recently been shared online.