By Alexander Cornwell
TEL AVIV, Oct 2 (Reuters) – Israeli officials are expected to question the co-pilot who allegedly attempted to crash a commercial passenger flight from Dubai bound for Tel Aviv, according to a source briefed on the investigation.
Disaster was averted on flydubai flight FZ1073 on Wednesday after passengers and crew subdued the co-pilot, who had stabbed the captain in what Israeli officials have said was an apparent attempt to crash the plane carrying over 170 passengers and crew.
A reserve flydubai pilot crew travelling on the flight landed the plane at Tabuk airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where the co-pilot was detained by Saudi Arabian authorities.
The co-pilot was transferred on Thursday to the UAE, where the source said Israeli officials were expected to question him.
The source declined to say which Israeli agency or authority would take part in the questioning.
Asked whether Israeli officials would question the co-pilot, an Israeli government official told Reuters that Israeli investigators would take part in the UAE-led investigation alongside Emirati authorities, seeking to determine what happened and examine the suspect’s motives and background.
The UAE foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Israeli officials would question the co-pilot.
In his first public comments on the incident, flydubai Chief Executive Ghaith Al Ghaith said on Friday that authorities were conducting an official investigation, supported by the airline, after what he described as a “safety incident” in the cockpit.
“It is important that we allow this process to establish the facts,” he said in a written statement, acknowledging that there were “many questions” about what happened on flight FZ1073.
The UAE state news agency reported on Thursday that Emirati authorities had opened an investigation 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”.
MOTIVE NOT YET ESTABLISHED
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Israel was looking into whether the co-pilot had acted under anyone’s direction, warning in a video statement released by his office that whoever was involved would pay a “heavy price”.
Most of the passengers on board were Israeli nationals.
Netanyahu on Thursday said that the co-pilot, whom he has identified as an Omani national, had undergone radical Islamist indoctrination and was clearly suicidal, but that so far a motive for his actions had not been established.
Israel does not have official diplomatic relations with Oman, and Netanyahu has said pilots from such countries were not permitted to operate flights to Israel. It was not clear how the co-pilot came to be assigned to the flight to Tel Aviv.
The aircraft plunged some 16,625 feet in just over 30 seconds as it flew over Saudi Arabia on the journey from the United Arab Emirates to Israel, according to data from flight tracker Flightradar24. The route is popular among Israelis.
CAPTAIN HAILED AS HERO
The co-pilot’s identity has not been publicly disclosed beyond his nationality. The captain who was stabbed has been identified as Indian national Smit Machchhar, who has been hailed as a hero by Netanyahu and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Omani authorities have not commented on the incident.
The incident heightened security fears in Israel weeks before Israelis vote on October 27, in the first general election since the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, with Israel’s security featuring prominently in the campaigning.
The US and Israel launched strikes against Iran in February, in a war that quickly spread to the Gulf and Lebanon, where Israel has been fighting Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Since coming under attack by Iran this year, the UAE has strengthened its relationships with Israel, with which it opened ties as a result of the 2020 Abraham Accords.
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell, additional reporting by Federico Maccioni; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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