Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that those responsible for the attempted terrorist takeover of an Israel-bound plane would “pay a very heavy price” as more details about the hijacker’s Islamic ideology emerge.
Netanyahu’s comments come after Israeli officials said that the Omani co-pilot accused in the hijacking of a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv was deeply committed to Islamic “jihadist ideology” and discussed “killing Jews” in social media posts. The hijacker, who stabbed the Indian pilot flying the plane, was stopped after passengers charged the cockpit and tied him up.
“As time passes, the picture is becoming clearer,” Netanyahu said. “The attacker underwent Islamist radicalization. He intended to crash the plane with all its passengers on board. We are now investigating whether he was sent, and whoever sent him will pay a very heavy price.”
An Israeli official said Thursday that they believed the hijacking was a suicide mission.
“This was a person who was willing to commit suicide,” an official told The Times of Israel. “His social media accounts [say] clearly that he has been radicalized into jihadist ideology.”
Posts on the co-pilot’s social media accounts talk “about killing Jews,” the official claimed. The name of the suspected terrorist has not been publicly disclosed.
“We can’t say for sure until the investigation’s over,” the official said. “But it certainly seems like he was a suicide actor who was probably going to try to down that plane.”
There were 174 passengers on board the flight, including at least 20 children. Multiple passengers jumped into action and were able to stop the hijacker.
“The door apparently wasn’t locked, and we managed to open it,” passenger Yaniv Hayun told reporters. “What made it difficult for us was the [Indian] pilot himself. He had been stabbed and was on the other side of the door.”
One passenger said that they incapacitated the hijacker using headphone cords. “We jumped on the pilot with force and tied him up using headphones,” the passenger said.
Netanyahu credited Hayun and his fellow passengers with stopping a 9/11-style attack.
The suspected terrorist was transferred to the United Arab Emirates for questioning.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said earlier this week that the hijacker wanted “to crash the aircraft with all its passengers aboard.”
“The serious incident aboard the Flydubai aircraft was an attempted jihadist terrorist attack, which was thwarted only thanks to the bravery of several Israeli passengers who broke into the cockpit, overpowered the terrorist, and with their own hands returned control of the aircraft to an additional flight crew that was present there,” he said.
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