Israel will begin repatriation flights on Friday to bring back passengers stranded in the United Arab Emirates after commercial travel between the two countries was suspended in the wake of the attack on a pilot by his co-pilot who tried to crash a Tel Aviv-bound flight this week.
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who → begin → flight
Authorities in Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and beyond are grappling with the fallout from the incident on board the FlyDubai flight from Dubai on Wednesday.
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Authorities → grapple → Wednesday
The attack has raised questions about the state of aviation security and further unsettled a Middle East already shaken by the ongoing U.S.-Iran war.
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attack → raise → war
Nothing is publicly known about the motive of the co-pilot who came close to crashing the aircraft and killing all 182 people aboard.
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who → know → people
The UAE has canceled all flights to Israel, complicating travel for hundreds of passengers who fly between the countries on a typical day.
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who → cancel → day
Israel and the UAE agreed on the repatriation flights, beginning on Friday, according to an Israeli official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
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who → agree → anonymity
Earlier, the national carrier El Al said the UAE was holding up the necessary landing permits to allow it to fly into Dubai.
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it → say → Dubai
The Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv listed carriers Arkia and Israir with flights scheduled to arrive from Dubai late Friday and early Saturday.
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Airport → list → Dubai
El Al was expected to fly passengers from Dubai to Israel on Sunday.
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Al → expect → Sunday
Dubai has been a popular destination for Israelis since Israel and the United Arab Emirates established ties in 2020 as part of the Trump administration’s Abraham Accords to normalize ties between Israel and Arab countries.
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Israel → establish → Israel
Trump says he’ll hit Iran ‘very hard’ if it had a hand in the attack
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his claim on Friday that the co-pilot, identified by Israeli officials as an Omani citizen, had undergone “Islamist radical indoctrination” but provided no evidence to back the assertion.
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pilot → say → assertion
“We are now investigating whether he was sent, and whoever sent him will pay a very heavy price,” Netanyahu said in a video message.
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Netanyahu → investigate → message
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that early information he’s received suggests there are links between the attack and Tehran but did not elaborate.
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he → tell → attack
Trump also said that if it is determined that Iranian agents were behind the attack, the United States will “hit them very hard.”
Israeli investigators are involved in the probe but the Emiratis are in the lead, according to an official who wasn’t authorized to speak to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
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who → say → anonymity
It’s unclear if the attacker was part of a group, said the official, adding that there is currently no evidence of a link with Iran.
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official → ’ → Iran
UAE senior diplomatic adviser Anwar Gargash on Friday called the FlyDubai attack a “dangerous terrorist act” in a post on X. He credited the flight captain for preventing the incident from turning into a catastrophic event.
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He → call → event
The moment is a test for the UAE government, which has burnished a reputation for building effective measures against extremist activities but has also bristled in the past over criticism of security lapses.
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which → burnish → lapses
“The Emiratis are going to be interested in protecting their reputation,” said Jon Alterman, chair of Global Security and Geostrategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
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Alterman → go → Washington
“They believe people should see them as a place that’s very secure, not a place that has serious lapses.”
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that → believe → lapses
The FlyDubai flight plummeted to 15,000 feet
Details of the harrowing flight, which made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, continue to emerge.
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which → plummet → Tabuk
Smit Machchhar, the wounded captain who has been hailed as one of the heroes of the flight, and the co-pilot were transferred on Thursday from Saudi Arabia to the UAE, the kingdom said.
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kingdom → hail → UAE
Machchhar is recovering in an Abu Dhabi hospital.
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Machchhar → recover → hospital
He spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a televised video call Friday, describing the terror he faced after being attacked by his co-pilot in the closed cockpit.
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he → speak → cockpit
“I had so many wounds.
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I → have → wounds
I had fallen down,” he said, his head bandaged, as he broke into sobs.
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he → fall → sobs
“I was fighting for my life.
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I → fight → life
At one point, I realized that if I didn’t get up … then passengers would lose their lives.”
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passengers → realize → lives
The captain managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to enter and restrain the attacker as the Boeing 737 — with 174 passengers and eight crew members — descended sharply.
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Boeing → manage → passengers
For the passengers on board, most of them Israelis, the first signs of trouble came more than two hours into the flight when the aircraft suddenly dropped down to 16,600 feet — the sharpest drop in altitude recorded by data tracking platforms.
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aircraft → come → platforms
Seconds later, it ascended to 21,725 feet before soon dropping back to 15,000 feet, which it maintained until safely landing more than an hour later.
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it → ascend → which
Soon after leveling off, the plane dispatched its first distress signal, Squawk 7700, a code for general emergency, while flying along the Saudi-Jordanian border.
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plane → level → border
It then sent a second distress signal, 7500, for “unlawful interference,” indicating something more serious like a hijacking attempt or an attack.
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It → send → attempt
It lasted for nearly an hour.
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It → last → hour
About 15 minutes after the second distress call, the aircraft turned west, briefly entering Jordanian airspace, then made a 180-degree turn and headed southwest to Tabuk, where it eventually landed, nearly four hours after taking off from Dubai.
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it → turn → Dubai
Trump’s suggestion that there could be an Iranian link adds a new layer of uncertainty to the on-and-off diplomatic efforts aimed at bringing an end to the seven-month war in Iran.
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suggestion → add → Iran
Iranian officials said Wednesday they received an official U.S. response to Tehran’s latest proposal to end the conflict, which Trump had publicly rejected just days earlier.
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Trump → say → which
The officials did not say what the response contained and whether it was a rejection.
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it → say → what
The U.S. is meanwhile dispatching roughly 9,000 more troops on ships to the Middle East, a U.S. official said Thursday — a move that could further complicate the political climate in the U.S., with looming midterm elections.
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that → dispatch → elections
The move could mean there would be three carriers in the region as early as the end of October, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.
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who → mean → operations
The move would bring the U.S. naval presence in the Middle East to an unusually high number of more than 20,000 sailors and Marines, as well as hundreds of aircraft.
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move → bring → aircraft
…and 3 more, not listed.
The Aporia
