UAE probes possible 'terror' incident on flight FZ1073 to Israel

The United Arab Emirates announced on Thursday it was probing a possible "terrorist" link to an apparent attack by a pilot on board a flight to Israel that saw passengers reroute the plane to stop it from crashing.

The dramatic events on Wednesday's flight FZ1073 ended with passengers being given a hero's welcome by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back home in Israel as they arrived from Saudi Arabia, where the plane made an emergency landing hours earlier.

Netanyahu 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.

The wounded Machchhar managed to unlock the cockpit door, allowing passengers to subdue the attacker, before a reserve crew that had been on board took over to land the plane in Saudi Arabia.

Passengers described rushing the cockpit after the plane suddenly plummeted, losing around 17,000 feet (5,200 meters) of altitude in the span of a minute, according to the Flightradar24 website.

Yaniv Hayun, one of the men who incapacitated the attacker, described running to the cockpit as the plane nosedived.

"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," he said talking to reporters upon his return to Israel on Wednesday.

Investigations begin

The UAE has started investigations that are seeking to establish the circumstances and motives and determine "whether the incident was linked to any terrorist activity or purpose, or involved prior planning or direction", the UAE state news agency reported on Thursday.

UAE judicial authorities have jurisdiction over the incident because the aircraft is registered in the UAE and flies under its flag, the statement said, adding that UAE law applies to crimes committed on board even if they occur outside the country's territory.

The attacker is also being investigated in Saudi Arabia, where the plane landed. Saudi authorities are yet to issue any statements on their investigations.

On Wednesday, an Israeli official identified the attacker as an Omani national. Omani authorities have not commented on the report.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz described the incident as "an attempted jihadist terror attack," but did not identify his source of that assessment. 

Israel's foreign ministry also called it "an attempted terrorist attack against Israelis, the United Arab Emirates, and the Abraham Accords", referring to the peace deal the two countries signed in 2020.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he had spoken with his UAE counterpart Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and agreed "to collaborate against extremist elements seeking to harm security and undermine stability".

US President Donald Trump, after discussing the incident with Netanyahu, said: "It seems as though the co-pilot was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack-job."

Netanyahu only described it as "a serious security incident" and told US broadcaster Fox News it was "too early" to say who was behind the altercation.

Flydubai said on Wednesday that the underlying reasons for the event remained unknown and warned against "premature speculation".

'Heroes' 

Airline flydubai has said all the passengers – of whom 166 out of 174 were Israeli, according to media reports – were safe, adding that the reasons for the altercation were unknown.

"During the flight, as they approached the country, one of the pilots stabbed the other pilot, and apparently tried to crash the plane with everyone on board," Netanyahu said in a video message.

"I salute these heroes," he said of the passengers, adding "they prevented a major disaster".

He later hailed wounded pilot Machchhar "for his extraordinary bravery", saying he prevented a "catastrophic mid-air disaster" by fighting off his copilot.

India's embassy in Saudi Arabia said Machchhar was being treated at a hospital in the country and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi described him as a "HERO" in a social media post on Thursday. 

"His valor helped save hundreds of lives," Modi said.

'Out of control' 

Hours after their initial flight was diverted to Saudi Arabia's Tabuk, another flydubai plane carried the passengers to Tel Aviv airport.

Footage shared by Netanyahu's office showed the premier meeting passengers after their arrival in Tel Aviv and embracing a man in a bloodied shirt.

Passenger Miryam Shira Ohayon described the plane as being "pretty much out of control" as the incident unfolded over Jordan.

"The co-pilot tried to murder the pilot and basically carry out a suicide attack on the plane," she told reporters by speakerphone held up by her mother at Ben Gurion Airport.

"It was really on the way to crashing, and it was simply the resourcefulness of many people who took control of the co-pilot and neutralized him," she said.

Passenger Almog Italie said it was like "we were having very big turbulence" before fighting erupted near the cockpit, saying "the other passengers from the front took over control."

Another passenger, Chaim Nazarovitz, said the ordeal had been "very terrifying", adding that for a moment he felt like he was "not among the living".

The airline said it was another "on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight who diverted and landed the aircraft safely" and that it was suspending flights to Israel while an investigation took place.

Israel has no formal ties with Saudi Arabia, but Italie said the group received a "very warm" welcome there.

The incident comes months into a regional war that erupted in late February with US-Israeli strikes on Iran and just ahead of Israel's elections due at the end of October.