[Photo Credit: Reuters]

Flydubai said the circumstances surrounding the incident were still under investigation and that it was not in a position to comment further, a spokesperson said on Saturday.

Reuters could not ‌immediately verify professional ⁠and social media pages reportedly belonging to the co-pilot, which suggested he had worked for other airlines.

Royal Air Maroc told Reuters, in response to a question about his potential employment there in the past, that he had undergone a three-month training with the airline in 2025 but his application to work there afterwards was rejected. RAM did not elaborate.

In his first public comments on the incident, flydubai Chief Executive Ghaith al Ghaith on Friday said that the flight diverted after a “safety incident” inside the cockpit.

Most of the passengers on board ​were Israeli nationals.

A reserve flydubai pilot travelling ​on the flight took control of ⁠the aircraft and landed it at Tabuk airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where the co-pilot was detained by Saudi authorities.

The co-pilot was transferred from Saudi Arabia to Abu Dhabi on Thursday. A source briefed on the investigation told Reuters on Friday that Israeli officials were expected ​to question the co-pilot in the UAE. The source declined to say which Israeli agency or authority would take part.

An Israeli ​government official said that Israeli investigators ⁠would take part alongside Emirati authorities in the UAE-led investigation.

Israel does not have official diplomatic relations with Oman, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said pilots from such countries were not permitted to operate flights to Israel. It was not clear how the co-pilot came to be assigned to the flight to Tel Aviv.

On Friday, Netanyahu said that Israel was looking into ⁠whether the ​co-pilot had acted under anyone’s direction, warning that anyone involved would pay a “heavy price”.

The aircraft dropped about ​16,625 feet in just over 30 seconds while flying over Saudi Arabia on its journey from the UAE to Israel, according to flight-tracking data from Flightradar24. The route is popular among Israeli travellers.