Hijacking Attempt in Cockpit of Israel-Bound Plane Sends Fighter Jets Scrambling
An attempt to hijack a commercial jet heading to Tel Aviv from Dubai ended Wednesday when passengers rushed the cockpit and subdued the would-be hijacker.
“One pilot stabbed the other and tried to do 9/11,” an official told Channel 12, according to the New York Post.
“We were either going to crash or be murdered. It was like a terrorist attack in mid-air,” a passenger told i24.
The FlyDubai jet had more than 100 Israeli passengers on board, according to The Jerusalem Post.
An Israeli official said a “major disaster was narrowly avoided” amid an Israeli assessment of the incident, during which the plane lost 4,000 meters of altitude.
Israeli jets were scrambled during the incident. The plane eventually landed safely in Saudi Arabia.
Questions outnumber answers Wednesday about the motivation and nationality of the co-pilot, who allegedly stabbed the pilot to take sole control of the aircraft. Israeli sources said the pilot was a native of Oman, which does not have normal diplomatic relations with Israel.
It was unclear if the pilot wanted to hijack the plane to a specific destination or crash it.
Yasmin Abu Kasis, whose daughter Miriam was on the flight, recounted that her daughter said a man took a knife and brought the pilot to the floor amid screams and blood.
An Israeli passenger said one man in the cockpit stabbed another as the plane began to dive. The passenger added that Israelis near the cockpit fought the attackers as the plane kept diving until she told two other pilots in the back to take control of the plane.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for Israel to “address the intent and not the results.”
“Whoever tried to crash a plane and murder 180 Israelis must pay as if he murdered. He and every state or terrorist organization that sent him,” he said.
“We heard screams on the plane, and when they opened the cockpit, there was a lot of blood,” passenger Miriam Ohayon said, according to The New York Times,
Ohayon’s mother, Yasmin Ohayon, said a woman sitting next to her daughter saw the fight in the cockpit and alerted passengers.
“Within a few minutes, our plane completely lost control, and we felt that this was it — we were about to crash,” Miriam Ohayon said.
Passengers overcame the attackers while a doctor and nurse tended to the wounded pilot.
Asked how the passengers overcame the attacker, Ohayon said, “I believe with their bare hands inside the cockpit.”
According to i24, which reported that there were 150 Israelis on board, the additional flight crew on board was present as part of a routine drill.
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