Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that the actions of an Indian pilot, an Israeli passenger and other crew members prevented what he described as “a 9/11 disaster" during an attempted terror attack aboard the Flydubai flight approaching Israel.
In an interview with CNN’s Jim Sciutto, Netanyahu described how the Israeli passenger rushed toward the cockpit after hearing “shouts and screams." The cockpit door was initially blocked, but the Indian co-pilot, who had been stabbed by the attacker, managed to unlock it despite suffering heavy bleeding.
“The Israeli passenger burst in, saw the attacking co-pilot hover over the instruments. He wasn't sitting in one of the two pilot seats, but he was trying to jam the instruments. The Israeli passenger, Yaniv, took him back, threw him back, took the controls, the stick, and pulled it back," Netanyahu said.
He said another Israeli and a crew member then helped subdue the attacker, while reserve pilots who had been in the passenger cabin took control of the aircraft. “And then the reserve pilots who were in the passenger area came in, stabilized the airplane. It was difficult, because it was in a nosedive," Netanyahu said.
“It was just dropping, nose down. And they managed to stabilize the plane. It had a rudder damaged, and the tail was damaged, but they somehow managed to do it."
Netanyahu praised those involved, saying, “So the amazing heroism here of the Indian pilot, the Israeli passenger, and his colleagues, and those pilots managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster, because that's what it looks like was happening."
Asked whether Israel had intelligence indicating that an attack of this kind was being planned, Netanyahu said there had been no specific warning. “No, not specifically. What we had is a lot of information streaming in that Iran's proxies in particular, Hezbollah and Hamas, were planning attacks against Israel and Israeli civilians abroad. But I can't tell you that we had any specific warning about this."
Netanyahu said the co-pilot accused of carrying out the attack was being questioned in Saudi Arabia and could subsequently be transferred to the United Arab Emirates.
“This is being interrogated right now. The pilot, the attacking pilot, is now being interrogated in Saudi Arabia. I assume very soon he'll be taken to the United Arab Emirates," he said.
Netanyahu added that he had spoken with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, who agreed to Israeli participation in the interrogation. “So we'll find out very soon if Iran had anything to do with it. But I can't say that in advance of the conclusion of the interrogation."