Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahusaid Thursday the co-pilot behind an attack on a flight to Israel had undergone "Islamist radical indoctrination" as the United Arab Emirates said it was probing a possible terror link. The dramatic events on Wednesday saw passengers reroute the flydubai plane to stop it from crashing, making an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia before the flight's mostly Israeli passengers were flown home to a hero's welcome. "We know that he underwent Islamistradical indoctrination,"Netanyahu told the "Fox & Friends" TV show without elaborating, adding that the co-pilot was being interrogated.
The Israeli premier said "the attacker, he calls out to the aircrew, 'Kill me, kill me'", making it "clear he was suicidal". His comments about the alleged attacker, whom the captain and passengers managed to overpower, came as the UAE chief prosecutor announced Thursday that an investigation had been launched, including the possibility of "terrorist activity or intent". Netanyahu earlier credited the flydubai pilot, Indian national Smit Machchhar, as well as passengers, with averting catastrophe, after a co-pilot allegedly stabbed him and tried to crash the plane.
Saudi Arabia's interior ministry said the co-pilot had been transferred from the kingdom to the United Arab Emirates on Thursday morning accompanied by an "Emirati security team", adding that their initial investigation showed he had attacked the plane's captain. Passengers described rushing the cockpit and a fight for control after the plane suddenly plummeted, losing around 17,000 feet of altitude in the span of a minute, according to the Flightradar24 website. Israeli officials have called the incident "an attempted terrorist attack", though in an earlier interview with CBS News,Netanyahu had not ruled out the possibility that mental health was to blame.
Netanyahu told Fox News that a disaster similar to the September 11, 2001 attacks "with bodies scattered in the desert" had been averted. To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading.
To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Netanyahu said he expected the United Arab Emirates to take the lead in the investigation, but that Israel would join the probe. He said the co-pilot was an Omani national and that Israel would look at how he was able to work on a flight to the country.
"We have constraints that say that you can't have pilots from countries that don't have diplomatic relations with Israel. Obviously he was able to go through that. How do we make sure that we screen pilots in advance?"Netanyahu told Fox News.
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