Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement to the public on Wednesday afternoon following the suspected hijacking incident involving a flydubai plane meant to land in Tel Aviv earlier in the day, confirming that one of the pilots had carried out a stabbing attack.
He later arrived at the Ben-Gurion Airport to greet the passengers who landed back in Israel on Wednesday evening.
“All passengers are out of danger,” Netanyahu said in his earlier statement. “The pilot who carried out the stabbing has been arrested and is currently being questioned by the Saudi authorities. We are in close contact with the relevant authorities to ensure the continued safety of the passengers and their safe return to Israel.”
The prime minister also explained that one of the Israeli passengers broke into the cockpit along with a crewmember and managed to neutralize the threat of the attacking pilot while another crewmember stabilized the plane.
“I salute these heroes who showed extraordinary resourcefulness and courage,” Netanyahu said. “They saved many lives; they averted a major disaster. The plane landed safely at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia.”
Later, Netanyahu was filmed at the airport embracing one of the passengers who helped neutralize the attacker on the plane, who was still wearing a blood-stained shirt.
“It’s simply unbelievable what you did, you know? Simply unbelievable. You didn’t just save everyone on the plane. You don’t know what could have happened to it. We don’t know what would have happened,” Netanyahu told him.
Before his visit to Ben-Gurion Airport, Netanyahu spoke with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. The two leaders met in person earlier in the week when the Israeli prime minister flew to the Gulf nation at bin Zayed al-Nahyan’s invitation. The Prime Minister’s Office said on Monday that the visit “focused on strengthening relations between the two countries and on regional challenges.”
Katz calls the incident a terror attack, echoes Netanyahu’s praise of Israeli passengers
Defense Minister Israel Katz also issued a statement on Wednesday, calling the flydubai incident a terror attack.
“The incident on the flydubai plane was an attempted jihadist attack,” Katz said, “which was only foiled thanks to the heroism of a number of Israeli passengers.”
He explained — similarly to Netanyahu — that the Israelis took control of the situation and eliminated the threat, and added that they handed the cockpit over to an alternate team of pilots on the plane.
“According to the initial information we have, the terrorist had one intention: to crash the plane,” Katz said.
Reuters and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
