More details emerge regarding the incident onboard flydubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, with reports hinting that one of the pilots could have stabbed the other to take control of the aircraft.
According to Israeli assessment, the incident could have ended in a major disaster. An Israeli senior official who was involved in the talks and assessments of the situation told Israeli media that during the flight, one of the pilots stabbed the other, with Israel investigating the suspicion that his goal was to take control of the plane and cause it to crash or hijack it.
During the incident, the plane began to dive. At this point, other crew members, including pilots, managed to take control of the aircraft and regain control of it.
Security officials fear the plan was to carry out an event in the style of the September 11 attacks - by taking over the plane and crashing it- or an attempt to hijack it while it was carrying Israeli passengers.
The co-pilot, who is suspected of carrying out the stabbings, is now being questioned, and there are indications that this was not a fight that developed spontaneously, but a deliberate attempt to take control of the plane.
The new information also aligns with some of the testimonies given by Israeli passengers after the landing. Passengers told Israeli media that the cockpit was full of blood and that crew members and passengers were forced to intervene. One of them claimed: "This was not a fight - it was a terrorist who tried to crush us,” according to Hebrew channel C-14.
Meanwhile, reports claim that there was a second team of pilots in civilian clothes on the plane. They are the passengers who prevented one of the pilots from taking over the plane. A senior Israeli official told Channel 12 that if the pilots had not been on the plane, the incident could have ended in another September 11, 2001, attack or 1976 Entebbe hostage incident.
The pilot who is under investigation is reportedly an Omani and was taken into immediate custody and is expected to face a particularly serious criminal investigation under the United Arab Emirates' strict penal laws.
The charges attributed to such acts include intentional endangerment of human life, attempted mass murder of approximately 100 Israeli passengers and other occupants of the plane, and first-degree aviation security offences. In parallel with the criminal proceedings, the suspect's pilot's license will be immediately and permanently revoked, and he could be transferred for forced psychiatric and medical examination and observation. The purpose of the examination is to determine whether he acted under the influence of a psychotic attack, substances, or an extreme personal and mental crisis, and whether any early signs were not detected in routine examinations.
The fate of the second crew member who saved the plane is being handled according to a specific and sensitive procedure. Despite his heroic action that stopped the plane at around 15,000 feet and prevented a national disaster, he could be temporarily suspended from flying operations – a mandatory procedural step taken against any pilot involved in a serious safety incident.
