The United Arab Emirates’ chief prosecutor on Thursday ordered an investigation into the incident aboard flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, which made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after a reported altercation in the cockpit.

The state news agency WAM said the attorney general had ordered the probe, adding that “the investigation team has launched its work into the incident” that forced the plane to land in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

The investigation will examine the circumstances and motives, including whether it was linked to any militant activity or involved prior planning or direction.

UAE judicial authorities have jurisdiction over the incident because the aircraft is registered in the UAE and flies under its flag, the statement said, adding that UAE law applies to crimes committed on board “even if they occur outside the country’s territory”.

Passengers described rushing the cockpit after the plane suddenly plummeted, losing around 17,000 feet of altitude in the span of a minute, according to the Flightradar24 website.

Airline flydubai said all the passengers — of whom 166 out of 174 were Israeli, according to media reports — were safe, adding that the reasons for the altercation were unknown.

Netanyahu praises Indian pilot

Meanwhile, Israel has alleged that the co-pilot of the flight had tried to crash the aircraft but that the pilot and passengers intervened and averted the crash.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu credited the wounded pilot — identified as Indian national Smit Machchhar — and passengers of the flight, with Israeli officials terming the incident “an attempted terrorist attack”.

Netanyahu hailed Smit’s “extraordinary bravery”, saying he fought off his copilot, preventing a “catastrophic mid-air disaster”.

“During the flight, as they approached the country, one of the pilots stabbed the other pilot, and apparently tried to crash the plane with everyone on board,” Netanyahu claimed in a separate video message.

In a Fox News interview, he also claimed an Israeli passenger helped overpower the attacker, identifying him only as Yanik and describing him as a plumber.

“An amazing act of heroism — of his, of the Indian pilot, of the people who helped them. They stopped a disaster that could have been global,” Netanyahu insisted.

The Indian embassy said Machchhar was being treated at a hospital in Saudi Arabia, and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi described him as a “HERO” in a social media post on Thursday.

“His valour helped save hundreds of lives,” Modi said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he had spoken with his UAE counterpart Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and agreed “to collaborate against extremist elements seeking to harm security and undermine stability”.

US President Donald Trump, after discussing the incident with Netanyahu, said: “It seems as though the co-pilot was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack-job.”

Riyadh turned down Israeli requests to send planes for passengers

Saudi Arabia turned down multiple requests by Israel to send its own planes to retrieve passengers from the diverted flydubai flight, a Saudi source with knowledge of the matter told AFP on Thursday.

“They asked to send military warplanes. Two or three direct to Tabuk airport,” the source told AFP. “Turned down.”

“Then asked to send [El Al] commercial one. Turned down as well.”

The source also told AFP the message was communicated through the UAE and not directly with the Israelis.

The Saudi source said the kingdom fulfilled its “international obligation” and assisted the passengers of the flight after they made the emergency landing, emphasising that the nationality of the travellers had no impact on their decision.

“We were to act the same way, regardless of the nationalities of flydubai passengers,” the source added.

In recent years, Saudi Arabia has resisted pressure to join the US-backed Abraham Accords and establish diplomatic ties with Israel.

Riyadh has maintained that it will not normalise relations with Israel without a clear path to Palestinian statehood.

But the kingdom has long been seen as the most consequential potential addition to the Abraham Accords, with negotiations advancing at various points before stalling.

’Out of control’

AFPTV images showed another flydubai plane carrying the passengers touching down at Tel Aviv airport, hours after their initial flight was diverted to Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk.

Footage shared by Netanyahu’s office showed the premier meeting passengers after their arrival in Tel Aviv and embracing a man in a bloodied shirt.

Passenger Miryam Shira Ohayon described the plane as being “pretty much out of control” as the incident unfolded over Jordan.

“The co-pilot tried to murder the pilot and basically carry out a suicide attack on the plane,” she told reporters by speakerphone held up by her mother at Ben Gurion Airport.

“It was really on the way to crashing, and it was simply the resourcefulness of many people who took control of the co-pilot and neutralised him,” she said.

The airline said it was another “on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight who diverted and landed the aircraft safely” and that it was suspending flights to Israel while an investigation took place.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz alleged that the incident was an attempted terror attack, but did not identify his source of that assessment.

The director general of Israel’s foreign ministry also called it “an attempted terrorist attack against Israelis, the United Arab Emirates, and the Abraham Accords”, referring to the normalisation deal the two countries signed in 2020.

‘Terrifying’

Passenger Almog Italie told AFP it was like “we were having very big turbulence” before fighting erupted near the cockpit.

“The other passengers from the front took over control,” he told AFP via video call from Saudi Arabia.

Another passenger, Chaim Nazarovitz, said the ordeal had been “very terrifying”, adding that for a moment he felt like he was “not among the living”.

Israeli media reported that the military scrambled fighter jets after concerns emerged that the aircraft might have been hijacked— with the hypothesis later dismissed.

The incident comes months into a regional war that erupted in late February with US-Israeli strikes on Iran and just ahead of Israel’s elections due at the end of October.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu said there were “indications” that Israel’s enemies could try to attack ahead of elections and was accused of “fear-mongering” by the opposition chief.