Passengers on board the flight have been talking to various media outlets. BBC News has not been able to verify their accounts.

Yasmin Abukasis told Reuters that her daughter – who was on the flight – said a man holding a knife had forced one of the pilots onto the floor, and that there was blood everywhere.

Speaking from Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, she said her daughter phoned her to say she heard screaming on the plane as a pilot called for help, adding that two other pilots took control of the plane as other passengers ran towards a man who had a knife.

“The plane start to lose control. So all the people, they scream, they think they are going,” Abukasis told AP news agency.

Passenger Zvika Meness told Israeli public broadcaster Kan News that his young daughter was in the toilet, and his wife accompanying her, when they heard shouting coming from the cockpit.

An additional crew member who was also a pilot went into the cockpit, and that is when they saw the stabbing, Meness said. He and two other people restrained the attacker, he added.

“We jumped on him; three of us jumped on him forcefully, and we tied him up with his own zip ties and with the multimedia headphones. That is how we neutralised him – resourcefulness, and that’s it.”

Another pilot who was in the passenger cabin then went in to help land the plane.

Almog Itali, who was also on board the flight, told media one of the pilots who landed the aircraft was British. The other pilot was European, Itali said, although he did not provide a specific nationality.

One female passenger described the “very stressful” moment people realised the plane was descending. “We understood the pilots lost control,” she told Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom.

“There are people here with shirts covered in blood,” she said, adding: “Now we are fine and want to return home.”

Meness also said “there are children and families here who have been through a very severe, highly traumatic event”.