(Al Jazeera Media Network) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the captain of a Flydubai jet as “a true hero” for saving the 174 people on board after he was stabbed by his co-pilot in what Israeli officials said was an attempt to bring down the plane.
Netanyahu’s comments on Wednesday came as Israel’s government said it would check the identities of all pilots flying into the country. Flydubai suspended flights to and from Israel as it investigates the episode on Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
Netanyahu said the captain, Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, “fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker”.
Despite being seriously wounded, he said Captain Machchhar prevented “a catastrophic mid-air disaster”.
“He is a true hero,” Netanyahu wrote on X.
The Boeing 737 Max 8 made an emergency landing in Tabuk, in northwestern Saudi Arabia, following the incident. According to flight-tracking service Flightradar24, the plane dropped from 33,000 feet (about 10,000 metres) to 17,000ft (about 5,200 metres) in about a minute.
Netanyahu said in a video that most of the passengers were Israeli and that the co-pilot had “apparently intended to bring the aircraft down as it approached Israel.” The co-pilot remains unidentified. The Israeli prime minister said Saudi authorities arrested the co-pilot after the landing and interrogated him.
