JERUSALEM: The emergency landing of a Tel Aviv-bound flydubai flight on Wednesday (Sep 30) was due to a “terrorist” who wanted to crash the plane and kill Israelis, AFP reported, citing Israel’s national security minister.
“The naive notion that our enemies cherish life and that we should pity them received another reminder this morning in the form of a terrorist who planned to crash a plane and murder the 180 Israelis on board,” Itamar Ben Gvir said in a statement.
Two pilots were wounded after they reportedly fought on board the plane they were flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv, and which was forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
Reuters reported two Israeli officials as saying that the co-pilot was believed to have stabbed the captain before cabin crew entered the cockpit and took control of the plane.
The two officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to brief reporters, said Israel’s current assessment is that the incident was an attempted “terror attack” and not related to any kind of mental health issue with either of the pilots.
The flydubai plane landed in Tabuk at 9.45am (2.45pm, Singapore time) and “its captain and co-pilot were found to have injuries and were transported to hospital”, a statement from the company operating the airport said.
The low-cost carrier had earlier said flight FZ1073 “experienced an incident while en route”.
Around the time the plane landed in Saudi Arabia, Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister’s office, told Reuters the incident was not believed to have been a hijacking, describing it as a “different incident”.
He did not immediately respond to a further request for comment on whether Israel was treating it as terror incident.
The incident triggered national security consultations in Israel, which has no official diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, where the plane landed.
In a statement, the Israeli prime minister’s office said the situation was “under control” and that all measures were being taken to bring the Israeli passengers back to Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who earlier held security consultations on the incident, has cleared his schedule for the rest of the day to manage the crisis, an Israeli official said.
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