The airline, a low-cost carrier, has not said what happened on board. Accounts from elsewhere differ sharply. Israeli media reported a fight between the pilots, and photos showed one passenger with a bloodied T-shirt. No injuries to passengers were reported.

Miryam Shira Ohayon, a passenger, described a far more violent episode. Speaking through her mother, Yasmin Abukasis, to reporters at Ben Gurion Airport, she said the co-pilot tried to stab the captain and tried to crash the plane while it was over Jordan. She said he meant to "carry out a suicide attack," and that the aircraft was "pretty much out of control" and "going down very fast." According to Ohayon, other passengers neutralized the aggressor, among them two pilots who were traveling as passengers.

Flightradar data is consistent with a sudden descent. The aircraft fell from nearly 34,000 feet to less than 17,000 feet between 05:21 and 05:22 GMT, a drop of roughly half its altitude in about a minute.

In Israel, the military scrambled fighter jets over fears of a hijacking, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is monitoring the situation. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called the incident an attempted "terrorist" attack. The airline has not confirmed that characterization or any other account of the cause.

Some Israeli media outlets identified the pilots as Omani and Emirati. Neither flydubai nor the authorities involved have confirmed their nationalities.