The co-pilot who allegedly tried to hijack a flight to Israel on Wednesday attacked his fellow pilot with an axe, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed.
Disaster was averted on Wednesday's flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv after the wounded captain managed to unlock the cockpit door, allowing passengers to subdue the attacker.
The plane was landed at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia by a reserve crew that had been aboard. There were more than 170 people on board.
“As [the plane] approached Israel, one of the co-pilots stabbed or hit with an axe the other pilot, an Indian pilot,” Netanyahu told CBS News on Wednesday, hours after the attack.
“The pilot that was hit, bleeding profusely, fighting for his life, managed to unlock the pilot's door,” he said, hailing captain Smit Machchhar, who was seriously injured in the attack, as a hero.
It remains unclear how the pilot gained access to a weapon and some analysts have suggested it may have been the emergency axe kept in the cockpit in case of emergency.
Passenger Daniel Schlichter told Fox News on Thursday that the cabin was alerted to the attack by a woman and her daughter who happened to see what was going on while heading to the lavatory on board.
“There was a woman with a daughter going to the toilet, and a few seconds after that, she pulled her daughter back to the passenger area, screaming, 'He stabbed the pilot!” he told the US outlet.
The flight plunged more than 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds during the incident as it flew over Saudi Arabia on the journey from the United Arab Emirates to Israel, according to the flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
Two Israeli security officials said Israel's initial assessment was that the co-pilot, identified by Israel as an Omani national, was likely acting alone, though the investigation was still ongoing.
The United Arab Emirates has started investigations seeking to establish the circumstances and motives and determine "whether the incident was linked to any terrorist activity or purpose, or involved prior planning or direction," the UAE state news agency reported on Thursday.
Attacker identified as Omani national
Israel's envoy to the UAE, Yossi Shelley, told Reuters that it was too early to draw conclusions and no motive had been determined.
Another Israeli official said Israel was not receiving all the information it sought from the Saudis and that the Israeli intelligence services, Mossad and Shin Bet, were investigating the incident as well.
In the first comment by the Saudi government on the incident, the Interior Ministry said in a statement that the captain and co-pilot, who were both treated in a hospital for injuries, left for Abu Dhabi on Thursday morning after receiving medical clearance.
Saudi Arabia said it had conducted the preliminary investigation with security teams from the United Arab Emirates.
The Saudi statement also said that the initial investigation indicated that the co-pilot assaulted the captain, forcing the plane to make the emergency landing in Tabuk. With the co-pilot now in the United Arab Emirates, Israeli investigators "can now join the UAE's investigation team and get precisely knowledge of what his motives were, who was behind him, what his plans were," Netanyahu spokesperson David Mencer told Fox News.
Netanyahu identified the attacker as an Omani national. Omani authorities have not commented. "We have constraints that say you can't have pilots from countries that don't have diplomatic relations with Israel. So obviously he was able to go through that," Netanyahu told Fox.
Asked if there was any indication of Iranian involvement, Netanyahu said it was too early to say. There have been no official suggestions from Israel of Iranian involvement. The two Israeli security officials said Israel had not identified any Iranian involvement so far. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that Israel's preliminary information indicated that the co-pilot aimed to crash the plane, describing him as a terrorist, though Netanyahu only described it as "a serious security incident."
Iran's permanent mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.
Security fears ahead of Israeli election
The incident heightened security fears in Israel weeks before Israelis vote in the first election since the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, with Israel's security figuring prominently in the campaigning.
The US and Israel launched strikes against Iran in February, in a conflict that quickly spread to the Gulf and Lebanon, where Israel has been fighting Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. Netanyahu and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have hailed the flight FZ1073 captain and Indian national Smit Machchhar as a hero.
The pilot was recovering well, the Indian embassy in the UAE said on X. Israel has also lauded passengers who subdued the attacker.
Yaniv Hayun, one of the men who incapacitated the attacker, described running to the cockpit as the plane nosedived. "We pulled the assailant out, I pulled him out. After I pulled him out we took control of the plane, I pulled up the yoke (steering control of the plane), I straightened the plane out a bit," he said, talking to reporters upon his return to Israel on Wednesday.
