Israel’s leader credited the pilot and passengers of a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight with averting a catastrophe on Wednesday after they overpowered a co-pilot who allegedly tried to crash the aircraft, forcing an emergency landing.
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who → credit → landing
Passengers described rushing the cockpit after the plane suddenly plummeted, losing around 17,000 feet of altitude in the span of a minute, according to the Flightradar24 website.
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plane → describe → website
Airline flydubai said all the passengers — of whom 166 out of 174 were Israeli, according to media reports — were safe, adding that the reasons for the altercation were unknown.
Israeli officials called the incident “an attempted terrorist attack” while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US broadcaster Fox News it was “too early” to say who was behind the altercation and lauded those who prevented a crash.
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who → say → crash
“During the flight, as they approached the country, one of the pilots stabbed the other pilot, and apparently tried to crash the plane with everyone on board,” Netanyahu said in a separate video message.
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Netanyahu → approach → message
“I salute these heroes,” he said of the passengers, adding “they prevented a major disaster”.
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they → salute → disaster
He later hailed the wounded pilot – identified as Indian national Smit Machchhar — “for his extraordinary bravery”, saying he fought off his copilot, preventing a “catastrophic mid-air disaster”.
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he → hail → disaster
In the Fox News interview Netanyahu also praised an Israeli passenger who helped overpower the attacker, identifying him only as Yanik and describing him as a plumber.
“An amazing act of heroism — of his, of the Indian pilot, of the people who helped them.
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who → praise → them
They stopped a disaster that could have been global,” Netanyahu said.
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Netanyahu → stop → disaster
The Indian embassy said Machchhar was being treated at a hospital in Saudi Arabia, and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi described him as a “HERO” in a social media post on Thursday.
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Modi → say → Thursday
“His valour helped save hundreds of lives,” Modi said.
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Modi → save → lives
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AFPTV images showed another flydubai plane carrying the passengers touch down at Tel Aviv airport, hours after their initial flight was diverted to Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk.
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flight → show → Tabuk
Footage shared by Netanyahu’s office showed the premier meeting passengers after their arrival in Tel Aviv and embracing a man in a bloodied shirt.
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premier → share → shirt
Passenger Miryam Shira Ohayon described the plane as being “pretty much out of control” as the incident unfolded over Jordan.
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incident → describe → Jordan
“The co-pilot tried to murder the pilot and basically carry out a suicide attack on the plane,” she told reporters by speakerphone held up by her mother at Ben Gurion Airport.
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she → try → Airport
“It was really on the way to crashing, and it was simply the resourcefulness of many people who took control of the co-pilot and neutralised him,” she said.
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she → crash → him
The airline said it was another “on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight who diverted and landed the aircraft safely” and that it was suspending flights to Israel while an investigation took place.
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investigation → say → place
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz described the incident as an attempted terror attack, but did not identify his source of that assessment.
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Katz → describe → assessment
The director general of Israel’s foreign ministry also called it “an attempted terrorist attack against Israelis, the United Arab Emirates, and the Abraham Accords”, referring to the normalisation deal the two countries signed in 2020.
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countries → call → 2020
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he had spoken with his UAE counterpart Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and agreed “to collaborate against extremist elements seeking to harm security and undermine stability”.
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he → say → stability
US President Donald Trump, after discussing the incident with Netanyahu, said: “It seems as though the co-pilot was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack-job.”
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pilot → discuss → Netanyahu
Passenger Almog Italie told AFP it was like “we were having very big turbulence” before fighting erupted near the cockpit.
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fighting → tell → cockpit
“The other passengers from the front took over control,” he told AFP via video call from Saudi Arabia.
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he → take → Arabia
Another passenger, Chaim Nazarovitz, said the ordeal had been “very terrifying”, adding that for a moment he felt like he was “not among the living”.
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he → say → living
Israeli media reported that the military scrambled fighter jets after concerns emerged that the aircraft might have been hijacked.
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aircraft → report → jets
In a video filmed inside the plane, a passenger with blood dripping from a head injury pleaded for assistance as they descended into Saudi Arabia.
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they → film → Arabia
Israel has no formal ties with the Gulf kingdom, but said the group received a “very warm” welcome there.
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group → have → welcome
The incident comes months into a regional war that erupted in late February with US-Israeli strikes on Iran and just ahead of Israel’s elections due at the end of October.
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that → come → October
On Tuesday, Netanyahu said there were “indications” that Israel’s enemies could try to attack ahead of elections and was accused of “fear-mongering” by the opposition chief.
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enemies → say → chief
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