Donald Trump said he believes the FlyDubai co-pilot accused of stabbing the captain during an attempted hijacking was likely connected to Iran’s military, while warning that Tehran could face severe consequences.
The co-pilot allegedly attacked the captain as the aircraft flew from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday, apparently attempting to bring down the plane.
A catastrophe was narrowly avoided when the injured captain unlocked the cockpit door, allowing passengers to overpower the attacker. More than 170 people, most of them Israelis, were aboard the flight.
Speaking at the White House on Thursday, Trump said his administration was investigating whether the co-pilot had ties to Iran or its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
‘We’re working on it right now,’ Trump said, adding that officials were being fully cooperative with the investigation.
Asked whether the co-pilot had links to Iran or the IRGC, Trump replied: ‘I would say the answer, based on what I’m hearing, is yes. But we’re working on it right now.’
Trump warned that the United States would punish Iran if the co-pilot was found to have acted with the regime’s backing.
‘They’ll be hit very hard,’ he said, issuing a five-word warning before adding: ‘Don’t worry.’
President Trump said he believes the co-pilot who stabbed the captain of a FlyDubai passenger flight bound for Tel Aviv was likely connected to Iran
This undated image, released on Israel’s Foreign Ministry social media account, shows Indian Captain Smit Machchhar. He was at the controls of a FlyDubai flight diverted to Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia for an emergency landing on Wednesday
Trump said the attacker may have links to Iran or the IRGC, although the administration was still investigating the possibility
‘We know that he underwent Islamist radical indoctrination. That appears to be something we are gathering from his personal information,’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News.
Two Israeli security officials said their initial assessment was that the co-pilot, identified as an Omani national, had probably acted alone. They stressed that the investigation remained underway.
According to flight-tracking website Flightradar24, the aircraft dropped more than 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds while flying over Saudi Arabia on its route from the United Arab Emirates to Israel.
Despite the dramatic incident, all passengers remained safe.
The co-pilot and captain were both hospitalized, according to Tabuk airport officials. After passengers restrained the co-pilot, the aircraft made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Trump also praised Boeing and CEO Kelly Ortberg in a social media post on Thursday, crediting the 737 MAX’s design for withstanding the extreme forces generated during the rapid descent before the aircraft stabilized.
‘Congratulations to the great Boeing Company for producing a plane, the 737 Max, that was able to withstand G Forces and Strain far beyond what it was designed and expected to do,’ he wrote.
‘It was an amazing show of precise and powerful structural planning and design. It is about time that The Boeing Company, which builds, by far, the finest commercial airliners in the sky, was given credit for this airplane’s incredible ‘genius!’ To Kelly Ortberg, and all of his officers and associates at Boeing, congratulations on a job well done!!!’
Images released after the incident show Captain Machchhar bloodied and using an oxygen mask following the stabbing
A fellow pilot has also now claimed the assailant – who is believed to be an Omani national – was a religious extremist.
Speaking in Hebrew on Israel’s Channel 16, foreign editor and news anchor Yosef Yisrael described how he spoke to a colleague of the attacker, who wishes to remain anonymous.
In a translated version, Yisrael reads out how the violent pilot ‘was someone characterized by very strange behavior, especially around religious observances that were out of step with his surroundings [at FlyDubai]. For instance, he used to pray a lot, and would not shake hands with women’.
Yisrael said his source ‘expressed contrition’ and said FlyDubai had ‘betrayed Israel.’
‘There is no other way to put it, we hired the services of a terrorist and nearly caused the deaths of 180 people,’ Mr Yisrael continued. ‘Usually only Emiratis fly to Israel. It is not clear how he got on this flight.’
