Cabin fight on FlyDubai flight: investigations underway

The flight's pilot was initially said to be Russian and the co-pilot Ukrainian. After a few hours it was discovered, as reported by the Israeli media, that the pilot is a citizen of Oman and the co-pilot from the United Arab Emirates. Israel is investigating how an Omani pilot obtained permission to fly to the Jewish state. Both the commander and the co-pilot were transported to hospital.

The airline FlyDubai officially announced that "the pilots had a scuffle in the cockpit during the flight, until one of them lost consciousness" and that it was therefore not "a safety incident". An Israeli security source instead stressed to Ynet that "there is no confirmed information on a hijacking", as had initially seemed to emerge.

An investigation was immediately opened to ascertain the causes of what happened: suspicion is growing that behind the alleged hijacking lies a suicide attempt by one of the two men involved. And again, following an assessment of the situation between the leaders of the IDF, the Shin Bet and the Mossad, the belief is spreading in Israel that the Flydubai plane crash was a terrorist attack.

It was a passenger on the flight who told the Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 that the co-pilot stabbed the captain several times with a boxcutter. Several crew members and some passengers managed to force open the cockpit door, immobilizing the co-pilot. "Only the Israeli passengers intervened. There are people with their shirts completely covered in blood," he said. "It was very distressing. We realized that the pilot had been stabbed and the plane started to crash. The plane started to move from side to side. We understood that the pilots had lost control because one of them had been stabbed. The plane went down quickly and it was really scary," said another passenger.

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