Paris Soir - UAE probes possible 'terror' incident on flight to Israel

The dramatic events on Wednesday ended with passengers being given a hero's welcome by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back home in Israel as they arrived from Saudi Arabia, where the plane made an emergency landing hours earlier.

Netanyahu credited the flydubai pilot, Indian national Smit Machchhar, as well as passengers with averting catastrophe, after a co-pilot allegedly stabbed him and tried to crash the plane.

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.

The UAE's chief prosecutor said an investigation had been launched into the incident, including the possibility of "terrorist activity or intent".

Israeli have officials called the incident "an attempted terrorist attack", though Netanyahu told US broadcaster Fox News it was "too early" to say who was behind the altercation.

- 'Heroes' -

Airline flydubai has 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.

"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 video message.

"I salute these heroes," he said of the passengers, adding "they prevented a major disaster".

He later hailed the wounded pilot, Machchhar, "for his extraordinary bravery", saying he fought off his copilot, preventing a "catastrophic mid-air disaster".

In his 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. They stopped a disaster that could have been global," he said.

India's embassy in Saudi Arabia said Machchhar was being treated at a hospital in the country and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi described him as a "HERO" in a social media post on Thursday.

"His valour helped save hundreds of lives," Modi said.

- 'Out of control' -

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.

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.

Passenger Miryam Shira Ohayon described the plane as being "pretty much out of control" as the incident unfolded over 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.

"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.

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.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz described the incident as "an attempted jihadist terror attack", but did not identify his source of that 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 peace deal the two countries signed in 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".

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."

- 'Turbulence' -

Passenger Almog Italie told AFP it was like "we were having very big turbulence" before fighting erupted near the cockpit.

"The other passengers from the front took over control," he told AFP via video call from Saudi 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".

Israel has no formal ties with Saudi Arabia, but Italie said the group received a "very warm" welcome there.

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.

R.Fournier--PS