How the flydubai flight plunged thousands of metres in minutes - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Passengers and crew members survived terrifying mid-air moments to save flight FZ1073 from disaster.

A thwarted "terror attempt" in the cockpit of a commercial flight bound for Tel Aviv saw terrified passengers plunge thousands of metres in just minutes.

The flydubai flight FZ1073 was diverted to Saudi Arabia after one pilot stabbed the other and "apparently tried to crash the plane", according to Israel's prime minister.

Passengers and crew among the 174 people on board stymied the attempt.

The journey began normally enough when the flight departed from Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates at 7:05am on Wednesday morning, local time.

During the next 30 minutes the Boeing 737 Max 8 gained an altitude of more than 30,000 feet.

After 8am it ascended to a cruising altitude of nearly 35,000 feet.

For the next hour it's business as usual. The plane flies out of Dubai airspace and is cruising over Saudi Arabia.

But then, two and a half hours into the flight, everything changes.

Flight tracking data shows that at 9:21am, Dubai time, the plane suddenly plunges tens of thousands of feet in a matter of minutes.

In the cockpit, the captain and first officer are brawling after one tried to stab the other and crash the aircraft, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In those terrifying minutes, the plane drops suddenly, regains altitude rapidly, then falls again.

In all, it lost more than 20,000 feet in a matter of minutes.

Different aircraft can descend at various rates, depending on flight conditions.

However, what passengers experienced on flight FZ1073 is closer to a "nosedive" than a standard descent.

Passenger Almog Italie says it felt like the plane was passing through "massive turbulence" before he realised a life-or-death struggle was unfolding in the control room.

"It was dropping like for 20, 30 seconds, and then balanced, and then started dropping again, and balanced again," Mr Italie told Reuters.

"Then we saw that [there] are people in the front, directly [in front of] the cockpit.

"Crew members and passengers from the front of the airplane took over and got control of the two pilots."

Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister's office, says the wounded captain, bloodied and lying on the floor, had drawn on "the last moments of his energy" to click open the release on the cockpit door.

Israeli officials later identified the injured pilot as Smit Machchhar, an Indian national.

"At that moment, some of the passengers that realised something was happening raced forward, entered the pilot's cabin," he said.

"They saw the injured pilot on the ground, and the other … the attacking pilot was standing over the control panel, bashing the control panel."

A passenger subdued the attacker, Mr Spielman said.

The plane was over Saudi Arabia at 9:44am, Dubai time, when air traffic control received a distress call.

For roughly 45 minutes after the sudden drop and recovery, flight tracking data shows the plane was beset by ongoing major turbulence.

At roughly 10:15am, Dubai time, the tracking data disappears. That gap lasts for about 15 minutes.

By this point, flight FZ1073 has descended even further, travelling at an altitude of little more than 5,000 feet.

According to a flydubai spokesperson, a reserve crew that had been on board took control of the plane and redirected it to Tabuk Airport, in north-western Saudi Arabia.

The flight briefly crossed into Jordan before returning to Saudi airspace.

Over the next 30 minutes, the flight continues its descent before touching down at Tabuk Airport.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the attempted attack "was thwarted solely thanks to the heroism of several Israeli passengers who stormed the cockpit, subdued the terrorist, and — with their own hands — restored control of the aircraft to an additional flight crew present on board".

"According to our preliminary information, the terrorist had a single objective: to crash the plane," he said in a statement.

The leaders of Israel and India have hailed Mr Machchhar, the injured pilot, as a hero.

Mr Machchhar underwent surgery after the incident and is reportedly stable, according to a post made by the Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia on X.

Flydubai said in a statement that the underlying reasons for the event remained unknown and warned against "premature speculation".

Mr Italie said the incident was "quite scary, but not for long".

"Most of the passengers kept calm and were very supportive to each other," he said.

"When then we landed in Saudi Arabia … we got a very, very warm welcome, with a lot of medical staff and food and anything we needed."