Netanyahu Says It Is Too Early to Link Iran to Flight Attack
Passengers and crew overpowered the co-pilot who stabbed the captain of a Dubai to Tel Aviv flight and tried to bring the aircraft down, and it landed safely in Saudi Arabia after plunging more than 17,000 feet. Asked whether Iran was involved, Benjamin Netanyahu said: “It’s too early to say.” The airline has suspended its flights to and from Israel while the investigation proceeds.
The account of how it was stopped is the part that has firmed up overnight. The stabbed captain, the Indian national Smit Machchhar, is stable in hospital and was described by the Israeli prime minister as a “true hero”: “Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster.” One passenger, Yaniv Hayun, described putting the attacker into a chokehold while others pinned him down, on an aircraft carrying 174 people. Israel had no advance warning or intelligence, Mr Netanyahu said. His caution about Iran is notable for the week it lands in: the defence minister Israel Katz had already called this an “attempted jihadist terror attack” without offering detail, and Britain’s prime minister attributed a separate plot at RAF Fairford to Iran only yesterday. The suspect, arrested in Saudi Arabia, is expected to be transferred to the United Arab Emirates. Watch which country actually conducts the investigation, because that will determine how much is disclosed.