Netanyahu says it is too early to determine motive for FlyDubai cockpit stabbing incident

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CBS News on Wednesday that the motive of the co-pilot accused of stabbing his fellow pilot on an airliner to Dubai to Tel Aviv was still unknown.

“I don’t think it was a hijacking,” Netanyahu told “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil.

“I think it looks like a suicide attempt just because of what this hero Yaniv described when he walked in,” Netanyahu speculated, referring to Yaniv Hayoun, one of the passengers on the FlyDubai flight who was credited with entering the cockpit and helping to subdue the attacker.

“This guy was trying to jam the equipment between the two flight seats, the pilot seats,” Netanyahu said of the co-pilot, whose identity was not revealed. “He wasn’t sitting in the pilot’s seat trying to stabilize the plane, he was trying to jam the equipment.”

Speaking to Fox News on Thursday, Netanyahu said Israel knew the co-pilot had undergone “radical Islamist indoctrination,” based on “personal information” collected during ongoing interrogations. In He gave no further information about the alleged indoctrination, but added to Fox that the attacker was “suicidal” and that after being overpowered by other crew members and passengers, he shouted: “Kill me, kill me!”

According to Israeli officials, on Wednesday morning local time, the FlyDubai plane was on a roughly two-hour flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv when the co-pilot stabbed the captain.

According to data analyzed by CBS News’ sister network BBC News, the plane then plunged approximately 17,000 feet, climbed 5,000 feet, then fell another 7,000 feet before leveling off.

Israeli officials and passengers said the captain, an Indian national, managed to push away his co-pilot and unlock the cockpit door. Witnesses described how a group of passengers and crew members then stormed the cockpit and overpowered the co-pilot.

Two off-duty pilots then took control of the plane and made an emergency landing at Tabuk airport, Saudi Arabia. There were 174 people on board, Israeli officials said. Most of the passengers then boarded a replacement FlyDubai plane and were flown to Ben Gurion International Airport, where they arrived on Wednesday evening.

An Omani official confirmed to CBS News that the attacker, whose name has not been released, was born in Oman and has Omani citizenship, but the Omani government has not publicly confirmed his nationality.

Netanyahu told CBS News he was being questioned in Saudi Arabia.

“He will, I assume, be transferred very quickly to Dubai,” Netanyahu told CBS News, adding that Israeli authorities “will join the interrogation and find out what exactly happened there.”

A senior Israeli official told CBS News’ Dov Lieber on Thursday that UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan personally told Netanyahu on Wednesday that he expected Saudi authorities to transfer the pilot to the UAE for questioning.

Asked if he thought the incident could have stemmed from a mental health issue and not an act of terrorism, Netanyahu replied: “It’s possible, I don’t know, we’ll find out soon.”

“We have had indications that Iran, particularly through its proxies, intends to intensify terrorist attacks against Israel and Israeli nationals abroad,” Netanyahu added. “But I think it’s too early to say whether there was Iranian collusion here. I think we’ll find out, it won’t take long.”

No definitive motive for this stabbing attack has been determined by the authorities. An Israeli security official previously told CBS News that investigators were looking into the possibility that the incident could have been an attempted 9/11-style terrorist attack.

“At this early stage, the reasons and motivations behind this event are unknown and remain under formal investigation,” FlyDubai said in its own statement. He urged “all parties to refrain from premature speculation while authorities gather the facts.”