The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahupointed out that one of the pilots of the FlyDubai flight who suffered an incident this Wednesday and ended up landing in Saudi Arabia, tried to crash the aircraft after stabbing his companion in the cabin.
“During the flight, as they approached the country, one of the pilots stabbed the other pilot. Apparently, he tried to crash the plane with its occupants.“, states the president in a video statement issued by his office, in his first message after the incident on the aircraft.
Netanyahu assured that this was an “extremely serious security incident.” and gave orders to Israeli security agencies to prepare for other “possible additional threats.”
For its part, Defense Minister Israel Katz went further and described it as an “attempted jihadist terrorist attack.” the event.
“The serious incident on board the Flydubai flight was an attempted jihadist terrorist attack. It was thwarted only thanks to the heroism of several Israeli passengers who broke into the cockpit, subdued the terrorist and, with their own hands, returned control of the aircraft to another crew member,” Katz said in a statement distributed by his ministry.
Netanyahu He announced that he had spoken with one of the passengers on the aircraft, who explained how the plane went into a spin and began to plummet.
Israeli television Channel 12 has broadcast several videos showing the moments of chaos during the sudden descent. The ship descended more than 5 kilometers in less than two minutes, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
The images shown on Israeli television also show the alleged attacker tied up, after passengers neutralized him. There are also images of one of the pilots bloodied and lying on the floor of the aircraft.
“Another crew member who was on the plane entered the cockpit and managed to stabilize the plane,” Netanyahu continued in the statement.
The flight of flydubaiwhich came out of Dubai heading to Tel Aviv and in which the majority of passengers were Israelis, ended up landing in Tabuk (Saudi Arabia), from where the passengers are expected to be repatriated.
Netanyahu had warned yesterday Tuesday about alleged indications that “enemies” of Israel could attack the country before the October 27 elections, without giving more details.
Following these statements, the opposition leader, Yair Lapid, demanded that he hold a meeting to receive information about the security situation in question.
This Wednesday, after the attempted hijacking of the flight flydubaiLapid wrote on the social network X: “Nothing even resembling this morning’s plane incident appeared in the security update with the Prime Minister last night.”
After the incident, the attacker was detained and interrogated by the Saudi authorities.