The pilot accused of trying to hijack a Flydubai flight was allegedly a religious extremist who showed ‘very strange behaviour.’
Passengers on the Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv said they thought they were going to die when the jet suddenly dropped thousands of feet during an apparent attack in the cockpit.
Hero pilot under attack, Smit Machchhar, was praised for saving the lives of 174 people as he managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers, including two off-duty pilots, to stabilise the plunging plane.
He is fighting for his life in hospital after being seriously injured and covered in blood as the plane made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
More details are emerging about the suspected attacker, who is said to be an Omani national, although his details are yet to be officially confirmed.
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Another pilot claimed he was a religious fanatic, who prayed a lot and refused to shake hands with women, according to the Daily Mail.
Yisrael claimed the colleague described the suspected pilot as ‘someone characterised by very strange behaviour, especially around religious observances that were out of step with his surroundings [at Flydubai]. For instance, he used to pray at lot, and would not shake hands with women.’
An investigation is reportedly being carried out how the pilot had been cleared to fly the route as Israel and Oman do not have diplomatic relations due to political disagreements.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested the incident was almost ‘another 9/11,’ but said it was too early to say who might have been behind the attack.
He told Fox News: ‘I don’t know the exact background of this person, the attacker, but he obviously hated Israelis because he was going to kill about 170 of them on this plane, killing himself, too.’
The pilot was being investigated in Saudi Arabia, after which he will likely be taken to the Emirates ‘where he comes from, or at least where he left, where he flew off from,’ Netanyahu said.
US president Donald Trump confirmed he had spoken with Netanyahu about the incident, and said it ‘seems though the co-pilot was perhaps a terrorist, or perhaps a whack-job, and he stabbed the pilot.’
However, Trump acknowledged he had not received independent confirmation of the suspect’s details or motivation.
He said: ‘Now this is the story that I heard. I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s the story that I got from BB [Bibi].’
Trump recounted the details he received from Bibi, as Netanyahu is nicknamed, saying a passenger who had ‘never flown a plane’ levelled it ‘before it crashed.’
The quick-thinking passenger, believed to be a man named Yaniv, shared how he stopped the attacker pilot as he was ‘trying to destroy the instruments in order to disable the plane.’
Yaniv, still covered in bloodied clothes, told Netanyahu after landing in Israel: ‘One was down, one was on the instruments. And another guy came in with me. I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold, and pulled him – first and foremost – outside.’
With the help of others, they then managed to pin down the attacker ‘to keep him secure.’
He claimed he ‘pulled the controls’ of the plane, which he had learned from watching Air Crash Investigation.
Flydubai, which has operated 10 daily services between Dubai and Tel Aviv, said it will suspend the route for the time being.
The airline said in a statement: ‘Following the incident involving flight FZ 1073 on 30 September, and in coordination with the relevant authorities, flydubai flights to and from Israel will be suspended while the investigation continues.’
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