Whoever sent Omani co-pilot...: Netanyahu's grim warning over flydubai attack

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday issued a warning, saying his government would extract “a heavy price” from whoever plotted the attack linked to the September 30 flydubai incident involving a Tel Aviv-bound flight.

“As time passes, the picture is becoming clearer. Yaniv and his heroic companions prevented a disaster on the scale of 9/11,” he said.

“The attacker underwent Islamist radicalisation. He intended to crash the plane with all its passengers on board,” he added.

On Thursday, Netanyahu revealed that the co-pilot of a passenger jet that made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after an apparent attempt to crash it had undergone radical Islamist indoctrination and appeared to be suicidal.

A disaster was averted on Wednesday after the captain, despite being stabbed and wounded, managed to unlock the cockpit door, allowing passengers to overpower the attacker.

The aircraft, carrying more than 170 people, was then landed at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia by a reserve crew member who was on board.

In an interview with Fox News, Netanyahu said: "We know that he underwent Islamist radical indoctrination. That appears to be something we are gathering from his personal information." He also said it was clear that the co-pilot was suicidal.

"It looks very likely that he was going to down the plane," Netanyahu said.

Referring to what he called Islamist tendencies and radicalisation in the man's background, he added that this was "a pretty good clue", though he did not elaborate. "But again, I don't make final conclusions yet. But that's the indications we have now," he said.

Two Israeli security officials said Israel's initial assessment was that the co-pilot, identified by Israel as an Omani national, had probably acted alone, although the investigation was continuing. According to flight-tracking website Flightradar24, the aircraft dropped more than 14,000 feet in under 30 seconds during the incident while flying over Saudi Arabia on its route from the United Arab Emirates to Israel.

The UAE has begun an investigation to establish the circumstances and motive behind the incident and to determine "whether the incident was linked to any terrorist activity or purpose, or involved prior planning or direction", the state news agency reported on Thursday.

Israel's envoy to the UAE, Yossi Shelley, told Reuters it was too early to reach conclusions and that no motive had yet been established.

Another Israeli official said Israel was not getting all the information it had sought from Saudi Arabia and that Mossad and Shin Bet were also examining the case.

In its first public comment on the incident, Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said the captain and co-pilot had both been treated in hospital for injuries and had left for Abu Dhabi on Thursday morning after being medically cleared. It said Saudi authorities had carried out the preliminary investigation together with security teams from the UAE.

The Saudi statement said the initial investigation indicated that the co-pilot assaulted the captain, forcing the plane to make the emergency landing in Tabuk.

Netanyahu's spokesperson David Mencer told Fox News that, with the co-pilot now in the UAE, Israeli investigators could join the Emirati team and gain precise knowledge of his motive, who was behind him and what his plans were.

Netanyahu identified the attacker as an Omani national. Omani authorities have not commented. He also said: "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."

Asked whether there was any sign of Iranian involvement, Netanyahu said it was too early to say. Israel has made no official suggestion of Iranian involvement, and the two Israeli security officials said no such link had been identified so far. Iran's permanent mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that preliminary information suggested the co-pilot intended to crash the aircraft and described him as a terrorist, while Netanyahu referred to the episode as "a serious security incident". The case has heightened security concerns in Israel just weeks before the country's first election since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, with security featuring prominently in the campaign.

The incident comes after 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 the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. Netanyahu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have praised the captain of flight FZ1073, Indian national Smit Machchhar, as a hero. The Indian embassy in the UAE said on X that the pilot was recovering well.

Israel has also praised the passengers who overpowered the attacker. One of them, Yaniv Hayun, said he ran to the cockpit as the aircraft went into a nosedive.

Speaking to reporters after returning to Israel on Wednesday, he said: "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." - Ends