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The Omani co-pilot who tried to hijack an Israel-bound flight was a radical Islamist on a suicide mission to down the plane and kill all 174 people on board, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday.
The co-pilot, who has not been named publicly, “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination” before he attacked his Indian lead pilot in the cockpit on the Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Netanyahu told “Fox & Friends.”
The attacker was subdued and tied up with a headphone cord by “superhero” passengers after the attack — and then started begging for the flight crew to “kill me, kill me,” according to the prime minister.
“So it’s clear he was suicidal,” Netanyahu said. “That’s not a question. It was clear he was going to down that plane.”
Here’s the latest on the Israel-bound plane suspected terror attack:
- Hero flydubai passenger still covered in blood meets Netanyahu as passengers arrive in Israel after hijacking attempt
- Pilot arrested for attempting to crash passenger plane in ‘jihadist terrorist attack’: Israeli officials
- Israel-bound plane pilot stabbed by co-pilot, causing jet to plunge 18K feet: They ‘tried to do 9/11’
- Graphic video shows blood-drenched pilot clinging to life after ‘attempted terror attack’
The pilot was stabbed in the head and “his arm was basically split in two” when he was attacked by the co-pilot about 2.5 hours into the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, Netanyahu said.
The plane was cruising at about 34,000 feet at the time and the jet plummeted 17,000 feet over the Saudi Arabian desert in just two minutes, according to Israeli media.
Netanyahu lauded the ordinary Israeli citizens who “became superheroes” and jumped into action to save the pilot, subdue the suspected terrorist and miraculously land the plane safely.
“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,” the Israeli leader said.
