The plane sent out an emergency code, then a second code for unlawful interference. It landed instead in Tabuk, in northwestern Saudi Arabia.
That's everything we know.
Why this mattersSo here's what we know so far.
An Israeli official says the co-pilot tried to stab the captain. A passenger helped pull him off.
The co-pilot is reported to be Omani. The captain's nationality is disputed — one outlet says Indian, another says Emirati.
And here's the wild part. Off-duty pilots were on board as passengers. Once Israeli passengers dragged the attacker out of the cockpit, those off-duty pilots took the controls.
Both the captain and the co-pilot were taken to hospital. An Israeli dentist on board treated the stabbed pilot before the plane even landed.
174 passengers were on that flight. 27 of them were children. How many were Israeli? Still not clear. Estimates go anywhere from 100 to 180.
flydubai says the flight experienced an incident. Everyone is safe and accounted for. No further detail given.
Israel's air force scrambled fighter jets. They were worried it was a hijacking. Israel's Prime Minister's Office later said no, they don't believe it was.
Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel Katz, Israel's Defence Minister, held urgent security talks. Eyal Zamir, the IDF's Chief of Staff, ran his own assessment with senior officers.
But here's the part turning into a political fight.
Yair Lapid, Israel's Opposition Leader and a former prime minister, says he sat through a security briefing with Benjamin Netanyahu the night before this morning's flight. He heard nothing about this.
Yair Lapid says quote "Nothing similar, nothing reminiscent of it, not even a hint."
So Israel's own opposition leader is saying the briefing missed this completely. Whatever this turns out to be.
Lapid also says Netanyahu's political allies are trying to tie this to the prime minister's earlier election-related security warnings.
Two of Netanyahu's own ministers have already jumped in. Bezalel Smotrich, the Finance Minister, says Israel should treat this as deliberate no matter how it ended. Itamar Ben-Gvir, the National Security Minister, shared an unverified report claiming the attacker planned a 9/11-style attack. That claim is unverified.
So senior Israeli figures are already calling this a terror attack. Before any investigation has said so.
But nobody outside Israel's political system has confirmed a motive. flydubai has only called it an incident. No group has claimed it. Nothing is known about the co-pilot's background or state of mind.
So two questions are still open. What actually happened in that cockpit. And why Israel's own opposition leader says nobody warned him it might.
