It is too early to say if Iran had any involvement in an attack by a pilot who stabbed another pilot and tried to take over a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, Israel’s prime minister has said.
The Flydubai plane plunged more than 17,000ft (5,200m) two hours into its journey on Wednesday, before passengers and crew overpowered the attacker and retook control to land safely.
The stabbed pilot, Indian national Captain Smit Machchhar, is in hospital in a stable condition, and has been hailed a “true hero” by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
One passenger, Yaniv Hayun, described how he put the attacker, who was trying to disable the plane, in a chokehold before other passengers helped pin him down.
The alleged attacker, who was arrested in Saudi Arabia, is expected to be transferred to the United Arab Emirates, where the plane took off from, Netanyahu told Fox News.
Asked whether there was any indication as of now of Iran’s involvement, he replied: “It’s too early to say”. He added that the pilot was “now being investigated in Saudi Arabia”.
US President Donald Trump said he had spoken with Netanyahu following the incident, saying it seemed as though the attacker was “perhaps a terrorist” or there were other reasons behind the attack.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has also called it an “attempted jihadist terror attack”, without giving any details.
Netanyahu told CNN Israel did not have any warning or advance intelligence about the incident on the plane, which was flying 174 people to Israel.
Flydubai’s flight FZ1073 took off from Dubai International Airport in the UAE at 03:05 GMT (07:05 local time), en route to Ben Gurion Airport.
Two hours later, the 17,000ft drop in altitude was reported on the plane tracking website Flightradar24 and minutes later the plane signalled an emergency code – squawk 7700 – before switching it to a squawk 7500 code reporting a hijacking.
