Omani Co-pilot on Suicide Mission to Down Plane, Netanyahu Claims

The Omani co-pilot who attempted to hijack an Israel-bound flight was motivated by Islamist radical indoctrination and intended to crash the plane, killing all 174 individuals on board, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday.

Speaking on "Fox & Friends," Netanyahu described the co-pilot, whose name has not been publicly released, as having undergone a radicalization process prior to attacking the lead pilot in the cockpit during the flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday. The prime minister recounted that passengers subdued the attacker using a headphone cord and that the co-pilot then pleaded for his own death.

"So it’s clear he was suicidal," Netanyahu said. "That’s not a question. It was clear he was going to down that plane."

According to Netanyahu, the pilot sustained multiple stab wounds to the head and suffered severe injury to his arm during the assault. The incident occurred approximately 2.5 hours into the flight, at an altitude of about 34,000 feet. Israeli media reported that the aircraft descended nearly 20,000 feet in two minutes over Saudi Arabian airspace.

Netanyahu commended the passengers, referring to them as "superheroes," for their actions in intervening, subduing the assailant, and ensuring the safe landing of the aircraft. He likened the event to an improbable real-life drama, stating, "This is Hollywood on steroids — you can’t make this up, you can’t believe that it actually happened in real life, but it did."