Benjamin Netanyahu: Co-pilot on FlyDubai flight stabbed the pilot and tried to crash the plane
by Vaughn Cockayne · The Washington TimesIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that the co-pilot of a FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv stabbed the pilot and tried to crash the plane, which was filled with dozens of Israelis.
Mr. Netanyahu said in a video statement that Saudi Arabian authorities arrested the co-pilot and were holding him for questioning.
Wednesday’s incident forced the plane, a Boeing 737 Max 8, which plummeted thousands of feet before being righted, to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia and sparked concerns of a terror plot.
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Mr. Netanyahu said passengers and a crew member broke into the cockpit to “neutralize” the co-pilot after he stabbed the captain and attempted to crash the plane.
Another crew member stabilized the plane after it had plunged nearly 15,000 feet in about 2 minutes as it flew over the Saudi-Jordanian border Wednesday morning, the prime minister said.
The flight made an emergency landing at 9:45 a.m. at the Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia.
FlyDubai has said “an altercation occurred on the flight deck,” but the airline has not confirmed if one of the pilots had a knife or if he stabbed the captain.
An emergency alert from the plane was sent about two hours after leaving Dubai, according to publicly available tracking data. The plane also set out an unlawful interference alert, which is used to signal a hijacking or illegal seizure, just a few minutes later.
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The Israeli air force scrambled two fighter jets after the plane signaled the unlawful interference alert, according to Israeli media reports.
FlyDubai Flight 1073 was carrying between 160 and 180 passengers, all of whom are accounted for and safe, according to the airline. FlyDubai said it sent two replacement aircraft to Tabuk to recover the crew and passengers.
One of the replacement planes landed at Ben Gurion airport late Wednesday morning. Saudi officials reportedly refused to allow Israeli planes to pick up the passengers in Tabuk. Israel and Saudi Arabia have no official diplomatic ties.
At least one video taken by a passenger after the emergency landing shows several men attending to two injured men on the floor of the cabin. At least one of the injured men in the cabin wore what appeared to be a FlyDubai uniform.
The pilot and co-pilot were treated for injuries at a Saudi hospital, airport officials said.
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What exactly happened on the flight, including what may have motivated the co-pilot to stab the captain, remains at least partially a mystery.
Authorities have not released any public information on the suspect’s motive, but media reports indicate that Israeli security officials are investigating the incident as an attack against Israelis.
Mr. Netanyahu stopped short of calling the incident a terror attack but called it “an extremely severe security incident.”
Other Israeli Cabinet ministers, including Defense Minister Israel Katz, have called the clash in the cockpit an “attempted terrorist attack,” though he provided no evidence.
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Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, far-right allies of Mr. Netanyahu, also asserted Wednesday that the incident was a foiled terror attack.
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Vaughn Cockayne
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