• Search for motive: Investigators are still working to determine why a pilot allegedly attacked his captain and tried to seize control of a Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv on Wednesday. A security team is transferring the suspect to the United Arab Emirates, which says it is investigating whether the violence was linked to terrorism.
• About the suspect: The accused pilot has not been publicly identified, but Israel says he is an Omani national. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the suspect “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination.” US President Donald Trump suggested the pilot may be linked to Iran, though he provided no details.
• Chaos and heroism onboard: Passengers who helped overpower the attacker are sharing more about the terrifying experience. Capt. Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot who has been hailed for his heroism in thwarting the suspected hijacking attempt, continues to receive medical attention.
Updates
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New video has emerged showing the dramatic moments as passengers and crew entered the cockpit and battled to take control of the Flydubai plane.
Several people can be seen crowded around the doorway to the cockpit, with one cabin crew member shouting at other passengers to sit down and calling for a doctor to help.
One person also calls out, “We need a pilot,” as cabin crew frantically work to unpack a first aid kit.
The Indian Flydubai captain who was attacked during a flight to Israel on Wednesday has been moved to Abu Dhabi for further treatment and is “recovering well,” according to India’s embassy in the United Arab Emirates, as more details emerge about the miraculous safe landing of the plane and the co-pilot accused of carrying out the attack.
A wide-ranging investigation is still unfolding, and a number of key questions remain unanswered. The suspect hasn’t been publicly identified, but Israel said he is an Omani national. His motive remains unknown.
Catch up on all the latest details here:
Suspect transferred to UAE: A security team is escorting the accused pilot to Abu Dhabi after he was medically cleared to travel, according to Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry. Both the injured pilot and suspected attacker were initially treated in Saudi Arabia, where the Flydubai plane made an emergency landing.
Searching for a motive: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the alleged attacker was being interrogated and that it has been established that he “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination.” US President Donald Trump suggested the pilot may be linked to Iran, but he provided no details. “We’re working on it right now,” Trump told reporters.
Other questions: Beyond the attacker’s motive and affiliations, several key details remain unclear, including exactly what weapon was used in the attack and whether vetting processes failed.
Firsthand accounts: Stories are emerging of the terrifying on-plane experience and the acts of heroism from the pilot and passengers. One man told CNN about the period of chaos before he and other passengers subdued the attacker, and another recounted how a TV show may have helped him stabilize the sinking plane.
CNN’s Mohammed Tawfeeq, Billy Stockwell, Sophie Tanno, Ivana Kottasová and Molly English contributed reporting.
US President Donald Trump said the Flydubai pilot who allegedly attacked his captain on a flight to Tel Aviv Wednesday could be linked to Iran.
“I would say the answer, based on what I’m hearing, is yes,” Trump said. “But we’re working on it right now.”
The accused pilot has not been publicly identified, but Israel says he is an Omani national, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the alleged attacker “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination.”
Trump was also asked if the pilot could have been “put in there by the IRGC” or “radicalized some other way,” to which Trump replied, “Could be. Could be.”
The president said Wednesday that he had spoken to Netanyahu about the attack.
The co-pilot, suspected of Wednesday’s Flydubai attack, departed to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with a security team after being medically cleared to travel, according to Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry.
In a Thursday statement, the ministry said preliminary investigations conducted by Saudi authorities, with the participation of a UAE security team, had “revealed an assault on the captain by the co-pilot, resulting in various injuries to both.”
The ministry said the Indian captain and co-pilot were taken to hospital following the emergency landing of Flydubai flight FZ1073 in Tabuk. After their condition improved and they were cleared by medical authorities, both men left Saudi Arabia for Abu Dhabi on Thursday morning local time accompanied by an Emirati security team.
Earlier, Indian officials said Captain Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot who was injured in Wednesday’s mid-air Flydubai attack, had been moved to Abu Dhabi, for further “medical attention.”
Authorities have yet to disclose the identity of the co-pilot alleged to have attacked Machchhar. Nor have they provided details about a possible motive or the weapon allegedly used in the altercation.
The ministry said Saudi Arabia handles “emergency situations in accordance with its international and humanitarian obligations” and in line with regulations aimed at ensuring “the safety and security of air navigation.”
Captain Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot who was injured in Wednesday’s mid-air Flydubai attack, has been moved to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), for further “medical attention,” according to India’s Ministry of External Affairs.
Machchhar was initially treated for his injuries in Saudi Arabia, where the diverted Israel-bound plane was forced to make an emergency landing after the Indian captain’s co-pilot allegedly attacked him in the cockpit.
India’s embassy in the UAE said earlier Thursday that Machchhar is in “good health and recovering well.”
CNN has reached out to UAE authorities for comment.
Machchhar’s bravery has inspired people back home. In India, local artists paid tribute to the Mumbai native with a sand sculpture on Puri beach. Sudarsan Pattnaik told Reuters the sculpture was made to acknowledge the pilot’s act of bravery. “Everybody is saluting him for his work, his courage.”
An Israeli man who helped overpower the Flydubai suspect has described the moment that chaos erupted on the flight in an exclusive interview with CNN.
Tzvika Manes, CEO of Bank Leumi’s underwriting arm Barak Leumi, can be seen in social media footage showing flight passengers pinning down the alleged attacker and aiding the injured pilot in the aircraft’s cockpit.
Speaking to CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, Manes said that he and his family had been traveling home after a holiday in Tokyo, with a layover in Dubai. The flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv had proceeded normally until the aircraft was just over an hour away from its arrival destination.
“My wife took my six-year-old daughter to the toilet… She heard noises from the cockpit, shouting, fighting, very unusual sounds,” Manes said.
He described how his wife then rushed to wake up one of the additional pilots who was on the airplane to alert him to what was going on. At that point, Manes said his wife saw the cockpit door open and could see the pilot being attacked.
The plane descended sharply for a few minutes before stabilizing, and Manes described how he went to grab his daughter from the toilet.
He and two other passengers then rushed into the cockpit to neutralize the suspect, while one of the additional pilots was already taking control of the plane’s controls.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised “Israeli heroism” on Thursday as he met with passengers from the diverted Flydubai plane who helped to save the plane from disaster.
Netanyahu spoke with several passengers including Yaniv Hayoun, who said he put the alleged attacker in a chokehold and dragged him out of the cockpit, and Shota Musaev, who helped the injured Indian pilot.
“The entire world is witnessing Israeli heroism,” he said. The motive of the suspected attacker, the co-pilot, is not yet clear.
The Israeli prime minister told the passengers that “through extraordinary courage, resourcefulness and faith, they had prevented a major disaster and saved many lives,” according to his office.
As investigators across the Middle East probe the apparent hijacking attempt, here is a look at what we know, and what we don’t, about the incident.
What was the motive behind the attack? Investigators are still trying to establish what drove the unidentified Omani suspect to launch an attack on his fellow pilot. The UAE is investigating whether the violence was linked to “terrorist activity.” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN’s Jim Sciutto that it was too early to tell whether Iran was involved, later telling Fox News that the alleged attacker “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination.”
What weapon was used? Passengers on the plane as well as various officials described the pilot as having been “stabbed.” While investigators have not released any details about the weapon, Netanyahu said the pilot was stabbed, or hit with an ax.
How could a knife or ax get on board a plane? Netanyahu said that the pilot may not have been required to pass through a metal detector and thus “could have carried a knife, or an ax,” or he may have used an ax that was already on the aircraft. Under aviation safety rules, a crash ax is a required piece of equipment on most passenger planes.
Who is the attacker and where is he now? The alleged attacker was detained and interrogated by Saudi authorities. He has only been publicly identified as an Omani citizen. Netanyahu said he would be transferred to the UAE for questioning, with Israel involved in the investigation.
What is the condition of the attacked pilot? Captain Smit Machchhar, the injured pilot, underwent a surgery on Wednesday and was in stable condition, according to a local politician in his hometown.
Who landed the plane? Flydubai said the aircraft was “successfully secured by on-duty Flydubai crew travelling on the flight, who diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk Airport.”
What is pilot screening like? Israel has some of the world’s strictest aviation security protocols. An Israeli security official told CNN that Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, is supposed to vet all airlines’ personnel flying into Israel from the UAE.
One passenger aboard the diverted Flydubai flight has pointed to an unlikely source of inspiration behind his miraculous effort to help subdue the alleged attacker and take control of the plane: a TV show which reconstructs real-life air disasters.
After entering the cockpit, Yaniv Hayoun started “pulling back the handles,” he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.
The Israeli prime minister asked if he knew how to operate the plane.
The show “Air Crash Investigation” presents a dramatized reconstruction of plane disasters involving fires, hijackings and crashes using aviation experts and eyewitnesses. The name of the show varies across different countries, including “Air Disasters” in the United States.
President Donald Trump marveled at the passenger’s explanation that he knew what to do because he’d watched the TV show, with the US leader saying he doesn’t like to watch the show “because bad things happen.”
“But he said he watches it a lot and he learned from watching that show sort of how to fly,” Trump said. “I think it’s the most amazing stuff.”
CNN senior security analyst Juliette Kayyem told CNN that the reported injuries suffered by the Indian pilot aboard a Flydubai plane suggest the weapon used was “not a minor knife.”
“It does look like just given the injuries that are described about the pilot who was stabbed, it does appear that these are major injuries. This is not a minor knife,” she said.
She added that investigators would need to establish what weapon was used in the cockpit attack and whether it was an ax kept aboard for emergencies.
Earlier today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with CBS News that the suspect may have used an ax in the attack.
Like security analyst Alex Plitsas, who spoke to CNN earlier, Kayyem described the injured pilot’s ability to open the cockpit door and allow others inside as “beyond heroic,” noting that entering a secured cockpit would otherwise be nearly impossible. “It really is unbelievable,” she added.
“We’ve made the cockpit so secure that you just assume that once you’re in there as a pilot or copilot, that you’re safe.”
“If the pilot who had been stabbed was not able to open the cockpit door, this would have had geopolitical consequences,” Kayyem said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he sees two possible ways in which the alleged attacker in the Flydubai attempted plane hijacking may have obtained the weapon used to attack the pilot.
According to Netanyahu, the co-pilot may not have been required to pass through a metal detector before boarding the plane.
“Passengers go through a metal detector but I’m not sure that pilots always do,” he told Fox News.
“Then he could have carried a knife, or an ax.”
Alternatively, he may have used an ax that was already on the aircraft. “He might have gotten an ax from the equipment that might be standard on this aeroplane,” Netanyahu said. He added, “We’re looking into that, we can’t draw conclusions yet.”
Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian pilot, was attacked while helping thwart the apparent attempt to hijack the Flydubai plane en route to Israel on Wednesday. Machchhar suffered “massive blood loss” and was “severely wounded,” Dr. Shota Musaev, a dentist on board, told CNN.
Once the plane landed, Machchhar was taken to hospital in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. He is now said to be in stable condition.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the alleged attacker in the Flydubai incident is being interrogated and it has been established that he “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination.”
“That appears to be something we’re gathering from his personal information,” Netanyahu told Fox News on Thursday.
The Israeli prime minister told the broadcaster that it was too early to say whether the alleged attacker, the co-pilot, had any connections to Iran or anyone else. But he said this would be established one way or another in a matter of days.
Netanyahu added that it was clear the attacker had been suicidal. After being pinned down by passengers including a plumber who intervened to thwart the co-pilot’s alleged attempts to jam the plane’s instruments, he called out “kill me,” according to Netanyahu.
“It’s clear he was suicidal, that’s not a question,” Netanyahu said, adding that it “looks very likely” that he had intended to down the plane.
The suspect is an Omani national but is yet to be publicly identified. International investigators have been trying to determine why he allegedly attacked the flight’s captain and tried to seize control of the plane.
The emergency landing of a Flydubai flight was “nothing short of a miracle,” CNN national security analyst Alex Plitsas said, describing a series of actions by the crew and passengers that helped avert disaster.
“They had to get everything right to basically make sure everybody survived,” Plitsas told CNN. “And somehow they figured it out as laypersons with no real training.”
According to the analyst, several things stood out.
First was the Indian pilot’s ability to signal an emergency and unlock the cockpit door while being attacked, allowing passengers to enter as the aircraft descended. “The captain somehow had the wherewithal to turn on the transponder and transmit that there was an emergency,” he said.
Second were unarmed passengers who subdued the armed attacker before one pulled back on the yoke to level the aircraft, drawing on knowledge from an air-disaster documentary. Also, Plitsas said, the presence of an additional pilot who happened to be aboard.
“The amount of sheer luck and tenacity and courage from the folks on board is almost impossible to describe,” the analyst told CNN.
According to Plitsas, the episode raises questions about threats originating from within the cockpit. Many post-9/11 security measures focused on preventing outsiders from accessing the cockpit, he noted. A review of personnel records would likely follow, he said, adding that such threats can be difficult to detect.
A key question for Israel is how the suspect – an Omani national – was apparently able to clear any vetting process.
Oman and Israel do not have formal diplomatic relations so the attacker, who is yet to be identified, should not have been allowed to fly the Israel-bound plane, an Israeli official told CNN.
A second Israeli security official told CNN that Israel’s internal security agency the Shin Bet is supposed to vet all airlines’ personnel flying into Israel from the UAE, as part of a side security understanding to the aviation agreements between the two countries.
The official says it is not known at this stage whether the Shin Bet failed to vet the alleged perpetrator, or whether it did vet him and approved him to fly the plane to Israel.
An Indian pilot and passengers who thwarted Wednesday’s suspected hijacking attempt of an Israel-bound Flydubai flight have been hailed as heroes.
But little is known about the other air crew who, with the pilot severely injured and his alleged attacker restrained, were forced to step in and land the diverted plane in Saudi Arabia.
The identities of the reserve pilots have not been shared, and CNN has reached out to Flydubai and the British Foreign Office for further clarity.
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “another air crew that was on the plane entered the cockpit and managed to stabilize the aircraft.”
Flydubai said the aircraft was “successfully secured by on-duty Flydubai crew travelling on the flight, who diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk Airport.”
So, how common is it for reserve pilots to be on planes?
David Soucie, an aviation safety analyst for CNN, said it was fairly unusual for additional on-duty pilots to be on flights “unless they are being repositioned for other flights.” In that scenario, the pilots are often off-duty.
Meanwhile, aviation expert Alan Diehl, a former investigator for the US National Transportation Safety Board, said other members of flight crew, like attendants, can occasionally hold private pilot licenses.
The pilot who allegedly attacked his captain before trying to seize control of Israel-bound Flydubai flight FZ107 has not been identified, nor do we know his motive or what weapon he used.
However, some details have emerged:
What we do know: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the alleged attacker is an Omani national.
He had only been working for Flydubai for eight months before allegedly carrying out the attack, an Israeli official told CNN.
He had been trying to “jam the instruments” of the plane when a hero passenger, later identified as plumber Yaniv Hayoun, burst into the cockpit, Netanyahu told CNN.
The Israeli prime minister said that Israel had not received any specific warning from intelligence agencies prior to the attack. “What we had is a lot of information streaming in that Iran’s proxies, in particular Hezbollah and Hamas, were planning attacks against Israel and Israeli civilians abroad. But I can’t tell you that we had any specific warning about this,” he said.
Netanyahu also said that the suspect used an ax – although this is yet to be confirmed.
An international investigation: Netanyahu continued that he assumed that the suspected attacker would soon be transferred to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for questioning, with Israel involved in the investigation.
Oman and Israel do not have formal diplomatic relations, and it is not yet clear how the Omani pilot would have obtained clearance to fly to Israel. The suspected attacker has since been detained and is being questioned by Saudi authorities, Netanyahu said Wednesday.
But questions remain around how the incident unfolded and what motivated the pilot to instigate the bloody altercation.
Passengers arrived safely in Israel on a replacement Flydubai flight after Saudi Arabia rejected an Israeli request to send a military or civilian plane to bring passengers home. One passenger, Assaf Rajuan, said the person who attacked Machchhar was “neutralized” very quickly by a group of passengers and flight crew.
Rajuan said he and about five others helped subdue the attacker.
Read more about what happened on the Flydubai flight here.
The alleged attacker on a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv will likely be transferred to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for questioning, Israel’s prime minister has said, as the injured Indian pilot who fought off the attack is said to be in a stable condition.
Here’s the latest:
Omani national: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN the alleged attacker is an Omani national. He had only been working for Flydubai for eight months before allegedly carrying out the attack, an Israeli official told CNN. His identity has not been revealed.
Weapon used?: Netanyahu said pilot Captain Smit Machchhar was “stabbed or hit with an ax” by the co-pilot, in an interview with CBS News. His words come as it remains unclear what exactly the weapon was that the co-pilot allegedly used to carry out the attack. Some reports have suggested that the alleged attacker may have used the aircraft’s own cockpit crash ax.
UAE transfer: Netanyahu told CNN that he assumed that the suspected attacker would soon be transferred to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for questioning, with Israel involved in the investigation. It comes as far-right Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir has called for the suspect to be extradited to Israel to “pay the highest price here.”
Possible motive: The UAE attorney general has opened an investigation into whether Wednesday’s violence was linked to “terrorist activity” and involved any “prior planning or direction,” state news agency WAM reported.
‘Out of danger:’ Injured pilot Machchhar, who fought off the attack, is said to be in a stable condition, according to a local politician in his hometown. Parag Shah, who represents Ghatkopar East, the eastern Mumbai suburb Machchhar is from, told CNN that the pilot was “out of danger.”
Rescue flights: Israeli flag carrier El Al will operate special rescue flights from Dubai to Tel Aviv to bring home stranded Israeli nationals following the cancellation of flights to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport. It comes after Flydubai temporarily suspended flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv in the wake of yesterday’s mid-flight attack.
CNN’s Mostafa Salem, Eugenia Yosef, Mitchell McCluskey, Tal Shalev, Ivana Kottasová, Ayushi Shah and Jessie Yeung contributed reporting.
Far-right Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir has called for the suspect in Wednesday’s apparent hijacking attempt to be extradited to Israel to “pay the highest price here.”
“Our security doctrine must be clear: anyone who attempts to murder or harm Israelis — the State of Israel will pursue them and hold them accountable wherever they are in the world,” the minister added.
Despite Ben Gvir’s request for Israel to take the lead, several nations will likely be involved in the probe, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, where the plane was forced to land.
UAE authorities have jurisdiction to investigate the incident because the aircraft is registered in the country, and UAE law applies to crimes committed aboard its planes even when they occur outside the country’s territory, state news agency WAM reported Thursday.
The suspect was initially arrested and interrogated by Saudi authorities, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday. He later added that he assumed the suspected attacker would be transferred to the UAE for questioning, with Israel involved in the investigation.
Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot who fought off an attack by his copilot and helped prevent the apparent hijack of the Flydubai plane on Wednesday, is in stable condition, a local politician in his hometown said.
Parag Shah, who represents Ghatkopar East, the eastern Mumbai suburb Machchhar is from, told CNN that the pilot was “out of danger” after undergoing surgery at a hospital in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, citing family members.
Shah said that as far as he was aware, Machchhar’s family have not yet been able to speak to the pilot directly. However, he said Flydubai representatives are with him and taking care of him.
“He got operated yesterday, he is out of danger, and yes, he has become a world hero,” Shah told CNN.
Machchhar had suffered “massive blood loss” and was “severely wounded,” dentist Shota Musaev, a passenger on the flight who helped treat him, told CNN.
Shah told CNN Machchhar’s parents had left early on Thursday morning to fly to Dubai. He also said India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken to the parents.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said pilot Captain Smit Machchhar was “stabbed or hit with an ax” by the co-pilot who allegedly attacked him on the Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
“As they approached Israel, one of the co-pilots stabbed or hit with an ax the other pilot, an Indian pilot, and the pilot that was hit – bleeding profusely, fighting for his life – managed to unlock the pilot’s door,” Netanyahu said in an interview with CBS News.
His words come as it remains unclear what exactly the weapon was that the co-pilot used to carry out the attack. Some reports have suggested that the alleged attacker may have used the aircraft’s own cockpit crash ax.
• Search for motive: Investigators are still working to determine why a pilot allegedly attacked his captain and tried to seize control of a Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv on Wednesday. A security team is transferring the suspect to the United Arab Emirates, which says it is investigating whether the violence was linked to terrorism.
• About the suspect: The accused pilot has not been publicly identified, but Israel says he is an Omani national. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the suspect “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination.” US President Donald Trump suggested the pilot may be linked to Iran, though he provided no details.
• Chaos and heroism onboard: Passengers who helped overpower the attacker are sharing more about the terrifying experience. Capt. Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot who has been hailed for his heroism in thwarting the suspected hijacking attempt, continues to receive medical attention.
New video has emerged showing the dramatic moments as passengers and crew entered the cockpit and battled to take control of the Flydubai plane.
Several people can be seen crowded around the doorway to the cockpit, with one cabin crew member shouting at other passengers to sit down and calling for a doctor to help.
One person also calls out, “We need a pilot,” as cabin crew frantically work to unpack a first aid kit.
The Indian Flydubai captain who was attacked during a flight to Israel on Wednesday has been moved to Abu Dhabi for further treatment and is “recovering well,” according to India’s embassy in the United Arab Emirates, as more details emerge about the miraculous safe landing of the plane and the co-pilot accused of carrying out the attack.
A wide-ranging investigation is still unfolding, and a number of key questions remain unanswered. The suspect hasn’t been publicly identified, but Israel said he is an Omani national. His motive remains unknown.
Catch up on all the latest details here:
Suspect transferred to UAE: A security team is escorting the accused pilot to Abu Dhabi after he was medically cleared to travel, according to Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry. Both the injured pilot and suspected attacker were initially treated in Saudi Arabia, where the Flydubai plane made an emergency landing.
Searching for a motive: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the alleged attacker was being interrogated and that it has been established that he “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination.” US President Donald Trump suggested the pilot may be linked to Iran, but he provided no details. “We’re working on it right now,” Trump told reporters.
Other questions: Beyond the attacker’s motive and affiliations, several key details remain unclear, including exactly what weapon was used in the attack and whether vetting processes failed.
Firsthand accounts: Stories are emerging of the terrifying on-plane experience and the acts of heroism from the pilot and passengers. One man told CNN about the period of chaos before he and other passengers subdued the attacker, and another recounted how a TV show may have helped him stabilize the sinking plane.
CNN’s Mohammed Tawfeeq, Billy Stockwell, Sophie Tanno, Ivana Kottasová and Molly English contributed reporting.
US President Donald Trump said the Flydubai pilot who allegedly attacked his captain on a flight to Tel Aviv Wednesday could be linked to Iran.
“I would say the answer, based on what I’m hearing, is yes,” Trump said. “But we’re working on it right now.”
The accused pilot has not been publicly identified, but Israel says he is an Omani national, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the alleged attacker “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination.”
Trump was also asked if the pilot could have been “put in there by the IRGC” or “radicalized some other way,” to which Trump replied, “Could be. Could be.”
The president said Wednesday that he had spoken to Netanyahu about the attack.
The co-pilot, suspected of Wednesday’s Flydubai attack, departed to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with a security team after being medically cleared to travel, according to Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry.
In a Thursday statement, the ministry said preliminary investigations conducted by Saudi authorities, with the participation of a UAE security team, had “revealed an assault on the captain by the co-pilot, resulting in various injuries to both.”
The ministry said the Indian captain and co-pilot were taken to hospital following the emergency landing of Flydubai flight FZ1073 in Tabuk. After their condition improved and they were cleared by medical authorities, both men left Saudi Arabia for Abu Dhabi on Thursday morning local time accompanied by an Emirati security team.
Earlier, Indian officials said Captain Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot who was injured in Wednesday’s mid-air Flydubai attack, had been moved to Abu Dhabi, for further “medical attention.”
Authorities have yet to disclose the identity of the co-pilot alleged to have attacked Machchhar. Nor have they provided details about a possible motive or the weapon allegedly used in the altercation.
The ministry said Saudi Arabia handles “emergency situations in accordance with its international and humanitarian obligations” and in line with regulations aimed at ensuring “the safety and security of air navigation.”
Captain Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot who was injured in Wednesday’s mid-air Flydubai attack, has been moved to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), for further “medical attention,” according to India’s Ministry of External Affairs.
Machchhar was initially treated for his injuries in Saudi Arabia, where the diverted Israel-bound plane was forced to make an emergency landing after the Indian captain’s co-pilot allegedly attacked him in the cockpit.
India’s embassy in the UAE said earlier Thursday that Machchhar is in “good health and recovering well.”
CNN has reached out to UAE authorities for comment.
Machchhar’s bravery has inspired people back home. In India, local artists paid tribute to the Mumbai native with a sand sculpture on Puri beach. Sudarsan Pattnaik told Reuters the sculpture was made to acknowledge the pilot’s act of bravery. “Everybody is saluting him for his work, his courage.”
An Israeli man who helped overpower the Flydubai suspect has described the moment that chaos erupted on the flight in an exclusive interview with CNN.
Tzvika Manes, CEO of Bank Leumi’s underwriting arm Barak Leumi, can be seen in social media footage showing flight passengers pinning down the alleged attacker and aiding the injured pilot in the aircraft’s cockpit.
Speaking to CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, Manes said that he and his family had been traveling home after a holiday in Tokyo, with a layover in Dubai. The flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv had proceeded normally until the aircraft was just over an hour away from its arrival destination.
“My wife took my six-year-old daughter to the toilet… She heard noises from the cockpit, shouting, fighting, very unusual sounds,” Manes said.
He described how his wife then rushed to wake up one of the additional pilots who was on the airplane to alert him to what was going on. At that point, Manes said his wife saw the cockpit door open and could see the pilot being attacked.
The plane descended sharply for a few minutes before stabilizing, and Manes described how he went to grab his daughter from the toilet.
He and two other passengers then rushed into the cockpit to neutralize the suspect, while one of the additional pilots was already taking control of the plane’s controls.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised “Israeli heroism” on Thursday as he met with passengers from the diverted Flydubai plane who helped to save the plane from disaster.
Netanyahu spoke with several passengers including Yaniv Hayoun, who said he put the alleged attacker in a chokehold and dragged him out of the cockpit, and Shota Musaev, who helped the injured Indian pilot.
“The entire world is witnessing Israeli heroism,” he said. The motive of the suspected attacker, the co-pilot, is not yet clear.
The Israeli prime minister told the passengers that “through extraordinary courage, resourcefulness and faith, they had prevented a major disaster and saved many lives,” according to his office.
As investigators across the Middle East probe the apparent hijacking attempt, here is a look at what we know, and what we don’t, about the incident.
What was the motive behind the attack? Investigators are still trying to establish what drove the unidentified Omani suspect to launch an attack on his fellow pilot. The UAE is investigating whether the violence was linked to “terrorist activity.” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN’s Jim Sciutto that it was too early to tell whether Iran was involved, later telling Fox News that the alleged attacker “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination.”
What weapon was used? Passengers on the plane as well as various officials described the pilot as having been “stabbed.” While investigators have not released any details about the weapon, Netanyahu said the pilot was stabbed, or hit with an ax.
How could a knife or ax get on board a plane? Netanyahu said that the pilot may not have been required to pass through a metal detector and thus “could have carried a knife, or an ax,” or he may have used an ax that was already on the aircraft. Under aviation safety rules, a crash ax is a required piece of equipment on most passenger planes.
Who is the attacker and where is he now? The alleged attacker was detained and interrogated by Saudi authorities. He has only been publicly identified as an Omani citizen. Netanyahu said he would be transferred to the UAE for questioning, with Israel involved in the investigation.
What is the condition of the attacked pilot? Captain Smit Machchhar, the injured pilot, underwent a surgery on Wednesday and was in stable condition, according to a local politician in his hometown.
Who landed the plane? Flydubai said the aircraft was “successfully secured by on-duty Flydubai crew travelling on the flight, who diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk Airport.”
What is pilot screening like? Israel has some of the world’s strictest aviation security protocols. An Israeli security official told CNN that Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, is supposed to vet all airlines’ personnel flying into Israel from the UAE.
One passenger aboard the diverted Flydubai flight has pointed to an unlikely source of inspiration behind his miraculous effort to help subdue the alleged attacker and take control of the plane: a TV show which reconstructs real-life air disasters.
After entering the cockpit, Yaniv Hayoun started “pulling back the handles,” he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.
The Israeli prime minister asked if he knew how to operate the plane.
The show “Air Crash Investigation” presents a dramatized reconstruction of plane disasters involving fires, hijackings and crashes using aviation experts and eyewitnesses. The name of the show varies across different countries, including “Air Disasters” in the United States.
President Donald Trump marveled at the passenger’s explanation that he knew what to do because he’d watched the TV show, with the US leader saying he doesn’t like to watch the show “because bad things happen.”
“But he said he watches it a lot and he learned from watching that show sort of how to fly,” Trump said. “I think it’s the most amazing stuff.”
CNN senior security analyst Juliette Kayyem told CNN that the reported injuries suffered by the Indian pilot aboard a Flydubai plane suggest the weapon used was “not a minor knife.”
“It does look like just given the injuries that are described about the pilot who was stabbed, it does appear that these are major injuries. This is not a minor knife,” she said.
She added that investigators would need to establish what weapon was used in the cockpit attack and whether it was an ax kept aboard for emergencies.
Earlier today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with CBS News that the suspect may have used an ax in the attack.
Like security analyst Alex Plitsas, who spoke to CNN earlier, Kayyem described the injured pilot’s ability to open the cockpit door and allow others inside as “beyond heroic,” noting that entering a secured cockpit would otherwise be nearly impossible. “It really is unbelievable,” she added.
“We’ve made the cockpit so secure that you just assume that once you’re in there as a pilot or copilot, that you’re safe.”
“If the pilot who had been stabbed was not able to open the cockpit door, this would have had geopolitical consequences,” Kayyem said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he sees two possible ways in which the alleged attacker in the Flydubai attempted plane hijacking may have obtained the weapon used to attack the pilot.
According to Netanyahu, the co-pilot may not have been required to pass through a metal detector before boarding the plane.
“Passengers go through a metal detector but I’m not sure that pilots always do,” he told Fox News.
“Then he could have carried a knife, or an ax.”
Alternatively, he may have used an ax that was already on the aircraft. “He might have gotten an ax from the equipment that might be standard on this aeroplane,” Netanyahu said. He added, “We’re looking into that, we can’t draw conclusions yet.”
Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian pilot, was attacked while helping thwart the apparent attempt to hijack the Flydubai plane en route to Israel on Wednesday. Machchhar suffered “massive blood loss” and was “severely wounded,” Dr. Shota Musaev, a dentist on board, told CNN.
Once the plane landed, Machchhar was taken to hospital in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. He is now said to be in stable condition.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the alleged attacker in the Flydubai incident is being interrogated and it has been established that he “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination.”
“That appears to be something we’re gathering from his personal information,” Netanyahu told Fox News on Thursday.
The Israeli prime minister told the broadcaster that it was too early to say whether the alleged attacker, the co-pilot, had any connections to Iran or anyone else. But he said this would be established one way or another in a matter of days.
Netanyahu added that it was clear the attacker had been suicidal. After being pinned down by passengers including a plumber who intervened to thwart the co-pilot’s alleged attempts to jam the plane’s instruments, he called out “kill me,” according to Netanyahu.
“It’s clear he was suicidal, that’s not a question,” Netanyahu said, adding that it “looks very likely” that he had intended to down the plane.
The suspect is an Omani national but is yet to be publicly identified. International investigators have been trying to determine why he allegedly attacked the flight’s captain and tried to seize control of the plane.
The emergency landing of a Flydubai flight was “nothing short of a miracle,” CNN national security analyst Alex Plitsas said, describing a series of actions by the crew and passengers that helped avert disaster.
“They had to get everything right to basically make sure everybody survived,” Plitsas told CNN. “And somehow they figured it out as laypersons with no real training.”
According to the analyst, several things stood out.
First was the Indian pilot’s ability to signal an emergency and unlock the cockpit door while being attacked, allowing passengers to enter as the aircraft descended. “The captain somehow had the wherewithal to turn on the transponder and transmit that there was an emergency,” he said.
Second were unarmed passengers who subdued the armed attacker before one pulled back on the yoke to level the aircraft, drawing on knowledge from an air-disaster documentary. Also, Plitsas said, the presence of an additional pilot who happened to be aboard.
“The amount of sheer luck and tenacity and courage from the folks on board is almost impossible to describe,” the analyst told CNN.
According to Plitsas, the episode raises questions about threats originating from within the cockpit. Many post-9/11 security measures focused on preventing outsiders from accessing the cockpit, he noted. A review of personnel records would likely follow, he said, adding that such threats can be difficult to detect.
A key question for Israel is how the suspect – an Omani national – was apparently able to clear any vetting process.
Oman and Israel do not have formal diplomatic relations so the attacker, who is yet to be identified, should not have been allowed to fly the Israel-bound plane, an Israeli official told CNN.
A second Israeli security official told CNN that Israel’s internal security agency the Shin Bet is supposed to vet all airlines’ personnel flying into Israel from the UAE, as part of a side security understanding to the aviation agreements between the two countries.
The official says it is not known at this stage whether the Shin Bet failed to vet the alleged perpetrator, or whether it did vet him and approved him to fly the plane to Israel.
An Indian pilot and passengers who thwarted Wednesday’s suspected hijacking attempt of an Israel-bound Flydubai flight have been hailed as heroes.
But little is known about the other air crew who, with the pilot severely injured and his alleged attacker restrained, were forced to step in and land the diverted plane in Saudi Arabia.
The identities of the reserve pilots have not been shared, and CNN has reached out to Flydubai and the British Foreign Office for further clarity.
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “another air crew that was on the plane entered the cockpit and managed to stabilize the aircraft.”
Flydubai said the aircraft was “successfully secured by on-duty Flydubai crew travelling on the flight, who diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk Airport.”
So, how common is it for reserve pilots to be on planes?
David Soucie, an aviation safety analyst for CNN, said it was fairly unusual for additional on-duty pilots to be on flights “unless they are being repositioned for other flights.” In that scenario, the pilots are often off-duty.
Meanwhile, aviation expert Alan Diehl, a former investigator for the US National Transportation Safety Board, said other members of flight crew, like attendants, can occasionally hold private pilot licenses.
The pilot who allegedly attacked his captain before trying to seize control of Israel-bound Flydubai flight FZ107 has not been identified, nor do we know his motive or what weapon he used.
However, some details have emerged:
What we do know: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the alleged attacker is an Omani national.
He had only been working for Flydubai for eight months before allegedly carrying out the attack, an Israeli official told CNN.
He had been trying to “jam the instruments” of the plane when a hero passenger, later identified as plumber Yaniv Hayoun, burst into the cockpit, Netanyahu told CNN.
The Israeli prime minister said that Israel had not received any specific warning from intelligence agencies prior to the attack. “What we had is a lot of information streaming in that Iran’s proxies, in particular Hezbollah and Hamas, were planning attacks against Israel and Israeli civilians abroad. But I can’t tell you that we had any specific warning about this,” he said.
Netanyahu also said that the suspect used an ax – although this is yet to be confirmed.
An international investigation: Netanyahu continued that he assumed that the suspected attacker would soon be transferred to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for questioning, with Israel involved in the investigation.
Oman and Israel do not have formal diplomatic relations, and it is not yet clear how the Omani pilot would have obtained clearance to fly to Israel. The suspected attacker has since been detained and is being questioned by Saudi authorities, Netanyahu said Wednesday.
But questions remain around how the incident unfolded and what motivated the pilot to instigate the bloody altercation.
Passengers arrived safely in Israel on a replacement Flydubai flight after Saudi Arabia rejected an Israeli request to send a military or civilian plane to bring passengers home. One passenger, Assaf Rajuan, said the person who attacked Machchhar was “neutralized” very quickly by a group of passengers and flight crew.
Rajuan said he and about five others helped subdue the attacker.
Read more about what happened on the Flydubai flight here.
The alleged attacker on a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv will likely be transferred to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for questioning, Israel’s prime minister has said, as the injured Indian pilot who fought off the attack is said to be in a stable condition.
Here’s the latest:
Omani national: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN the alleged attacker is an Omani national. He had only been working for Flydubai for eight months before allegedly carrying out the attack, an Israeli official told CNN. His identity has not been revealed.
Weapon used?: Netanyahu said pilot Captain Smit Machchhar was “stabbed or hit with an ax” by the co-pilot, in an interview with CBS News. His words come as it remains unclear what exactly the weapon was that the co-pilot allegedly used to carry out the attack. Some reports have suggested that the alleged attacker may have used the aircraft’s own cockpit crash ax.
UAE transfer: Netanyahu told CNN that he assumed that the suspected attacker would soon be transferred to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for questioning, with Israel involved in the investigation. It comes as far-right Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir has called for the suspect to be extradited to Israel to “pay the highest price here.”
Possible motive: The UAE attorney general has opened an investigation into whether Wednesday’s violence was linked to “terrorist activity” and involved any “prior planning or direction,” state news agency WAM reported.
‘Out of danger:’ Injured pilot Machchhar, who fought off the attack, is said to be in a stable condition, according to a local politician in his hometown. Parag Shah, who represents Ghatkopar East, the eastern Mumbai suburb Machchhar is from, told CNN that the pilot was “out of danger.”
Rescue flights: Israeli flag carrier El Al will operate special rescue flights from Dubai to Tel Aviv to bring home stranded Israeli nationals following the cancellation of flights to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport. It comes after Flydubai temporarily suspended flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv in the wake of yesterday’s mid-flight attack.
CNN’s Mostafa Salem, Eugenia Yosef, Mitchell McCluskey, Tal Shalev, Ivana Kottasová, Ayushi Shah and Jessie Yeung contributed reporting.
Far-right Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir has called for the suspect in Wednesday’s apparent hijacking attempt to be extradited to Israel to “pay the highest price here.”
“Our security doctrine must be clear: anyone who attempts to murder or harm Israelis — the State of Israel will pursue them and hold them accountable wherever they are in the world,” the minister added.
Despite Ben Gvir’s request for Israel to take the lead, several nations will likely be involved in the probe, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, where the plane was forced to land.
UAE authorities have jurisdiction to investigate the incident because the aircraft is registered in the country, and UAE law applies to crimes committed aboard its planes even when they occur outside the country’s territory, state news agency WAM reported Thursday.
The suspect was initially arrested and interrogated by Saudi authorities, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday. He later added that he assumed the suspected attacker would be transferred to the UAE for questioning, with Israel involved in the investigation.
Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot who fought off an attack by his copilot and helped prevent the apparent hijack of the Flydubai plane on Wednesday, is in stable condition, a local politician in his hometown said.
Parag Shah, who represents Ghatkopar East, the eastern Mumbai suburb Machchhar is from, told CNN that the pilot was “out of danger” after undergoing surgery at a hospital in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, citing family members.
Shah said that as far as he was aware, Machchhar’s family have not yet been able to speak to the pilot directly. However, he said Flydubai representatives are with him and taking care of him.
“He got operated yesterday, he is out of danger, and yes, he has become a world hero,” Shah told CNN.
Machchhar had suffered “massive blood loss” and was “severely wounded,” dentist Shota Musaev, a passenger on the flight who helped treat him, told CNN.
Shah told CNN Machchhar’s parents had left early on Thursday morning to fly to Dubai. He also said India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken to the parents.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said pilot Captain Smit Machchhar was “stabbed or hit with an ax” by the co-pilot who allegedly attacked him on the Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
“As they approached Israel, one of the co-pilots stabbed or hit with an ax the other pilot, an Indian pilot, and the pilot that was hit – bleeding profusely, fighting for his life – managed to unlock the pilot’s door,” Netanyahu said in an interview with CBS News.
His words come as it remains unclear what exactly the weapon was that the co-pilot used to carry out the attack. Some reports have suggested that the alleged attacker may have used the aircraft’s own cockpit crash ax.
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