A Flydubai passenger said the co-pilot apparently stabbed the captain during a cockpit altercation before the Israel-bound jet plunged thousands of feet, triggering a terrifying scene aboard the aircraft and an emergency diversion to Saudi Arabia Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said one of the pilots stabbed the other and apparently attempted to crash the aircraft, which was carrying mostly Israeli passengers. Netanyahu said a passenger and crew member managed to enter the cockpit and overpower the alleged attacker as he tried to sabotage the aircraft's systems, allowing another crew member to stabilize the plane.

"I salute the heroes who showed extraordinary bravery and, according to the passenger's account, saved many lives," Netanyahu said, according to an unofficial translation of his remarks. He added that the pilot accused of carrying out the stabbing was arrested and was being investigated by Saudi authorities.

The passenger told Fox News that accounts of what happened remained conflicting, but said passengers understood that the co-pilot had stabbed the captain and then collapsed onto the controls.

"There are many different accounts, but apparently the co-pilot stabbed the captain and collapsed onto the controls, shutting down the entire instrument panel. We began plunging downward for several minutes. Everyone on the plane was screaming, the overhead compartments opened, and the power went out. We were sure we were going to die. It was very scary," the passenger said.

Flydubai later confirmed that an "altercation occurred in the flight deck," saying on-duty Flydubai crew traveling aboard the flight secured the aircraft, diverted it and landed safely in Tabuk. The airline did not confirm the reported stabbing and said the underlying reasons and motives remained under formal investigation.

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Saudi Arabia's Tabuk airport said both pilots were hospitalized after suffering injuries, according to Reuters. An investigation into the incident remains underway.

The Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, and everyone aboard was reported safe, according to officials.

A regional official briefed on the incident said an altercation broke out in the cockpit and apparently involved the pilots, though it was not immediately clear what sparked the confrontation. Israeli media, citing security officials, also reported that a dispute between the two pilots was behind the emergency.

"The crew have been questioned as part of the investigation," the regional official said, according to The Associated Press.

A U.S. official later told Fox News that the alleged attacker was taken into custody when the plane landed in Saudi Arabia.

The Jerusalem Post — could have been hijacked. Israel scrambled fighter jets as the situation unfolded.

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Two Israeli officials told Reuters that Israel's assessment was that the incident may have been an attempted "terror attack." The Jerusalem Post separately reported that the growing assessment among Israel's security establishment, including the IDF, Mossad and Shin Bet, was that the incident was intended as an act of terror.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz went further, calling the incident an "attempted jihadist terrorist attack" that was thwarted by Israeli passengers who entered the cockpit and overpowered the alleged attacker.

"According to the preliminary information available to us, the terrorist had one intention: to crash the aircraft with everyone on board," Katz said.

The aircraft transmitted an emergency alert during the flight, according to publicly available flight-tracking information. Flight FZ1073 had departed Dubai and was headed for Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv before diverting to Tabuk.

Flightradar24 data showed the aircraft suddenly plunging nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds before the first emergency signal, according to Reuters.

"The flight from Dubai was a very calm one for the first two hours. And when we were at the Jordanian border, suddenly the aircraft dropped, like a massive drop, like a massive turbulence for 20-30 seconds. Then balanced, and then once again dropped for 10 seconds and balanced again," passenger Almog Italie said in a video obtained by Reuters. "And then we saw that in the front of the aircraft there was a riot. Many people rushed over there. Apparently, one pilot stabbed the other."

Capt. Meidan Barr, former chairman of the Israel Airline Pilot Association, told Fox News Channel that such a rapid loss of altitude would ordinarily resemble an emergency descent, such as one performed following a loss of cabin pressure.

"Losing like 15,000 feet in two or three minutes, that is something that you do in, like, an emergency descent when you lose pressure," Barr said, adding that the aircraft's safe landing was significant and would allow investigators to determine what went wrong.

Flight-tracking data also showed the aircraft transmitting emergency transponder code 7700 before briefly switching to 7500, a code used to signal unlawful interference with an aircraft, and later returning to 7700.

Passengers described a tense scene aboard the aircraft as the emergency unfolded. Travelers told Israel's Channel 12 by phone that they heard shouting from passengers near the front of the plane who had apparently heard the cockpit altercation. They also said the aircraft dipped steeply before landing in Saudi Arabia.

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The account provided directly to Fox News offered a more harrowing description of the sudden descent, with the passenger saying people screamed as overhead compartments opened and power aboard the aircraft went out.

Yasmin Abukasis, whose daughter was aboard the flight, told Fox News at Ben Gurion International Airport that her daughter described passengers rushing to intervene during the cockpit confrontation.

Abukasis said her daughter told her that a man had a knife and that passengers grabbed his hand and forced him to the floor amid significant bleeding. She also said two other pilots subsequently took control of the aircraft.

After landing, passengers remained aboard the plane as a heavy Saudi security presence surrounded the aircraft, according to their accounts to the Israeli outlet.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office later said the situation was under control. The scare came as Netanyahu has warned in recent days about unspecified heightened security threats facing Israel.

Netanyahu convened security consultations over the incident and cleared the remainder of his schedule to manage the crisis, according to Reuters. The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli airspace was temporarily closed before reopening after the aircraft landed in Saudi Arabia.

Flydubai said it deployed two replacement aircraft to Tabuk to relieve the passengers and crew and that the incident had no impact on its other scheduled operations. A Flydubai plane carrying the passengers later landed safely in Tel Aviv on Wednesday evening local time.

"The plane was falling down... and then I felt that I am losing it, and I am going to lose all of my family. My wife was beside me, my little boy was also beside me and I was separated from them... it was very, very terrifying," passenger Haim Lazarovich said at the terminal at Ben Gurion Airport after landing.

"There was a group of young people and they fought with the second pilot," Lazarovich added, noting that he sat at the front of the plane. "Thank God I’m alive."

A Flydubai spokesperson said "at this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation," and, "we urge all parties to refrain from premature speculation while authorities gather the facts."

The exact circumstances surrounding the reported cockpit confrontation remained unclear Wednesday.

While disputes between pilots serious enough to affect a flight are rare, similar incidents have occurred. Two Air France pilots were suspended in 2022 after fighting in the cockpit during a flight from Geneva to Paris. That aircraft did not divert and landed as scheduled.

The initial hijacking fears carried particular weight in Israel, where aviation security has long been shaped by a history of attacks on Israeli travelers and aircraft. Palestinian militants carried out a series of hijackings and attacks involving Israelis during the 1960s and 1970s. Israel has not experienced an aircraft hijacking in decades and maintains stringent security procedures for Israel-bound flights.

Flydubai is a lower-cost sister carrier of Emirates. Flights between Israel and the United Arab Emirates began after the two countries normalized relations in 2020, opening the UAE as a major destination for Israeli travelers.

Fox News' Yonat Friling, Greg Norman-Diamond, David Spunt, Jake Gibson, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.