A day after the near-catastrophic attack on the pilot of a FlyDubai aircraft by his colleague in the cockpit, fresh details are emerging about the struggle to stabilize the plane and rescue the 174 passengers on board the plunging airliner.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu provided Fox News with details of the mid-air mayhem after speaking to returning passengers at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport. The attacker stabbed or hit the other pilot with an ax before being overwhelmed by passengers who rushed to the scene of the carnage, Netanyahu said late Wednesday.

“The pilot who was there was an Indian pilot” and “very badly wounded,” Netanyahu said. “He’s fighting, I think, for his life right now, but in an act of unbelievable courage, he managed to unlock the door to the cockpit.”

The drama that unfolded on board the Boeing Co. 737 Max aircraft on Wednesday morning took a lucky turn thanks to the intervention by passengers and a reserve air crew. But some key details remain unknown, including the motive behind the attack, whether the pilot acted alone, and what the political and economic fallout might be, as the region grapples with heightened security concerns amid the Iran war.

The United Arab Emirates attorney-general has ordered the creation of an investigation team. The group will look into the incident to examine the circumstances and motives behind the flight-deck altercation, and to verify whether it was linked to any terrorist activity, according to a statement.

FlyDubai has suspended flights to and from Israel while the investigation continues. Israeli carrier El Al said it will operate “special rescue flights” from Dubai to Tel Aviv after the flight cancellations with the first plane expected to depart Friday. Flights departing Tel Aviv will be empty and ticket prices will be fixed at $249 for the cheapest tier, the carrier said.

Most of the people on board the plane were Israelis, who were eventually brought back from the regional Saudi airport of Tabuk, where the plane made an emergency landing after its erratic flight.

FlyDubai has said the underlying reasons and motives behind the event are unknown “and remain subject to a formal investigation,” while UAE authorities called it a “security incident.”

Emirates, the sister airline of FlyDubai, has suspended codeshare operations with the carrier for the Dubai-Tel Aviv connection “with immediate effect, until further notice,” according to a statement.

One key line of inquiry will be the so-called black boxes that store cockpit voice recordings and flight data. What is known of the flight’s trajectory is that the plane took a sudden steep dive before being stabilized. Unconfirmed footage of the plane on the Saudi tarmac showed a damaged vertical stabilizer, suggesting extreme forces had impacted the aircraft.

In a video released by the Prime Minister’s office, the passenger who first ran to the cockpit told Netanyahu that after pulling the attacker off the pilot and out of the cockpit, he grabbed the controls and pulled them back.

“I watch Air Crash Investigations, Mr. Prime Minister,” the passenger, identified as Yaniv Hayun, told an incredulous Netanyahu. The plane started to balance out, and then the off-duty pilot who had rushed to the scene said he was taking control, Hayun said.

Nothing official is known of the nationality of the attacking pilot, and Netanyahu only identified the other pilot as Indian. Both men have been taken to hospital in Saudi Arabia with injuries, and authorities are questioning the pilot who wielded the weapon.

Netanyahu’s mention of an ax suggests the attacking pilot used a piece of emergency equipment that’s already on board, rather than smuggle in a weapon. On a Boeing 737, the crash ax is stored inside the flight deck and is mounted behind the pilot seats as part of the onboard firefighting and evacuation kit.

The attempted hijacking occurred amid a tense geopolitical backdrop. Netanyahu is running for reelection in a few weeks with a campaign focused on tougher security, with the U.S. and Iran are still locked in a standoff that started more than seven months ago.

The incident could help tilt undecided voters in Netanyahu’s direction — although his main competitors are also promising safety as their top priority. The Prime Minister has pledged to get to the bottom of the incident.

“So we’ll find out, we’ll get to the root of this attacker,” Netanyahu told Fox News. “Whether he had accomplices, whether Iran was behind it, I think we’ll find out out very soon.”

—With assistance from Marissa Newman.

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