Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday said that the copilot who tried to crash a passenger jet carrying 174 people on its way to Israel had undergone Islamist radicalization.
No motive has been determined for Wednesday’s harrowing near-disaster on flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, when passengers were able to subdue the attacker and a reserve crew aboard landed the plane in Saudi Arabia.
“I think it’s too early to say whether he had any connections with Iran or with any anyone else,” Netanyahu said.
Photo: Israel’s Foreign Ministry / AFP
It was clear that the copilot was suicidal, he added.
“If you couple that with the what I just told you about the Islamist tendencies, that radicalization that are found in his background, I think that’ll give us the a pretty good clue,” he said. “But again, I don’t make final conclusions yet.”
Meanwhile, a passenger who helped save the plane from crashing said he knew how to stabilize a nose-diving aircraft after watching an aircrash TV show.
Yaniv Hayun is being hailed in Israel as a hero after he and three other Israeli passengers managed to subdue the copilot, who had stabbed the flight’s captain, before pulling up the jet’s steering control to right it.
A second air crew aboard helped land the plane safely in Saudi Arabia.
“We knew there was an attack, because a woman screamed ‘stabbing’ and the plane shook,” Hayun said. “At that moment I ran to the cockpit and the plane dived.”
He told Netanyahu, who met him at the airport, that the stabbed pilot managed to open the cockpit door before collapsing.
“One [pilot] was down and one was on the controls, and another person came in with me, I grabbed the assailant and put him in a chokehold, and pulled him out,” he said.
He and a few other people subdued the copilot and then he pulled up the steering control of the plane, Hayun said.
Asked how he knew what to do, Hayun said he watches Air Crash Investigation.
Tzvika Manes, an Israeli bank executive and one of the passengers who helped hold the copilot down, said they used airline earphones to tie the copilot up.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he was nominating Hayun for the Presidential Award for Civilian Heroism, along with Manes, and Manes’ wife Tali — who was first to alert the passengers of the violence in the cockpit — and Shota Musaev, a doctor who treated the wounded captain.
Musaev helped incapacitate the copilot with another passenger, Asaf Rajuan, who was also nominated.
“I’m not a hero,” Rajuan said. “It’s something you do without thinking, running to save your daughter’s life, your family’s life, your wife, and all the staff and people on the plane. You don’t think, you just act.”
The airline captain, Smit Machchhar, has also been hailed as a hero for his actions to thwart the disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi writing on X: “In the face of the gravest danger and despite being seriously injured, he showed immense courage and an unwavering resolve to protect the lives of others. His valor helped save hundreds of lives and avert a great tragedy.”
Additional reporting by AP
PLEA: How the UN addresses Taiwan’s security issue would be a test of its strength and relevance, Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine told the UN General Assembly Only Taiwan’s elected government can represent the people of Taiwan, Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine said on Friday at the UN General Assembly, calling for the nation’s inclusion in the UN. Taiwan and its 23 million people are a reality, and only its democratically elected government can represent it, Heine said when addressing the 81st session of the UN General Assembly General Debate. Appropriate ways must be found for Taiwan’s substantive participation in UN meetings if the UN is to be truly inclusive and effective in years to come, she said. UN member states would experience pressure to accept a
FACTS DISTORTION: The MAC rejected Xi’s remarks that the US and ‘China’ fought side-by-side during WWII, saying the ROC was Washington’s true ally during the war Taiwan yesterday denounced Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) comments to US President Donald Trump on the nation’s future, after Xi appeared to push Trump for a subtle change in stance that could erode US support for Taiwan. Xi told Trump in Washington on Thursday that he hoped the US would adhere to the “correct position” of opposing Taiwanese independence, according to a Chinese readout of the talks. That would be a tougher version of Washington’s long-standing formulation that it does not “support” independence. There was no immediate White House readout of the exchange. Xi’s remarks represent “the consistent Chinese approach of distorting facts
RESILIENCE: Keeping the defense industry’s assembly lines open would prove essential should the nation be involved in a prolonged conflict, a source said The Ministry of National Defense has prepared a NT$22 billion (US$692.3 million) program to acquire about 200 improved Hsiung Feng anti-ship missiles from next year to 2035, a source said. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a high-ranking defense official said the ministry’s plan for enhanced-capability Hsiung Feng II and Hsiung Feng III missiles would be funded as part of the regular defense budget. The 200 missiles would be added on top of the 1,400 missiles being funded via the Sea-Air Combat Power Improvement Plan, they said. The program is not about padding missile numbers, but expanding the capability to defeat
DEFENSE: The US House speaker dismissed speculation that Trump is using arms sales as a negotiating tactic with Beijing amid concern over delayed deliveries Taiwan is a partner whose “stability and independence” are important to US national security and the economy, US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said on Monday when asked about arms sales to Taipei in an interview with Fox Business. Asked whether US President Donald Trump was using a long-delayed US$14 billion arms deal as a negotiating tactic for trade with Beijing, Johnson said that he “wouldn’t read too much into that.” The delayed arms package is “related to the Iran conflict” and the need for missile stocks in the Middle East, he said. “If you look over [Trump’s] two terms, he will
RSS