Violence in Flydubai plane: Averted plane disaster lands in Israel's election campaign

Visibly relieved, around 170 mostly Israeli passengers landed in Tel Aviv on Wednesday evening after Flydubai flight FZ1073 narrowly escaped disaster in the morning. "Thank God I'm alive," one of the passengers told Britain's BBC at Ben Gurion Airport, where cheering people and relatives greeted the survivors. One person was taken to hospital with chest injuries and three were slightly injured, said the Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom.

Videos from passengers, flight data and eyewitness reports give an idea of ​​what happened on the way from Dubai to Tel Aviv. According to unconfirmed Israeli information, the co-pilot, who came from Oman, had injured the Indian pilot in the cockpit with a knife. Nevertheless, the latter apparently managed to make two emergency calls and unlock the cockpit door. Crew members and passengers then overpowered the attacker.

The plane went into a spin and, according to the Flugradar website, fell more than 4,000 meters within a minute. One of the passengers, Israeli Yaniv Hayoun, told Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in a published conversation that evening that he rushed into the cockpit and pulled the plane's control horn back and stabilized the plane. Two other Flydubai pilots who were on board then landed the Boeing 737 MAX 8 in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

Many questions about the background remain unanswered: The identity of the co-pilot or his motive are still unclear. Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz called the attack a "jihadist attack attempt" without providing any evidence. Israel's UN ambassador Danny Danon also spoke of a terrorist attack.

Netanyahu, however, told US broadcaster Fox News that it was “too early to say” who was behind the attack. The suspected attacker is currently being interrogated in Saudi Arabia and will soon be transferred to the United Arab Emirates. According to Netanyahu, Emirati and Israeli investigators would interrogate him there.

Flydubai has so far confirmed an altercation in the cockpit, but has not provided any further details. Among other things, the pilot is said to have made the emergency call code 7500, which stands for aircraft hijacking.

One day after the crime, the narrowly averted catastrophe in Israel is already being campaigned for. The country is more polarized than ever before the parliamentary elections on October 27th. On the eve of the attack, Netanyahu released a video from an air base in which he vaguely warned of an attack by enemies of Israel before the elections. His supporters now see this as evidence of his sense of threat.

The fact that Netanyahu himself told CNN that he had received “no specific warning” about the attempted kidnapping should not dissuade many die-hard supporters from this reading. Let alone opposition leader Jair Lapid, who, after an extraordinary security briefing with Netanyahu after his warnings, said that Netanyahu had not mentioned such a scenario in any way.

Even recent revelations from several media outlets that Netanyahu is said to have ignored explicit warnings on several occasions before the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 have so far done little harm to him in surveys.

The Flydubai incident has also raised questions about security vulnerabilities. According to Israeli media, Israeli authorities have special rights of objection on flights to Israel, for example when it comes to checking pilots or security checks at foreign airports.

According to Arabic media, the co-pilot is said to have worked for Flydubai for around six months. It now needs to be clarified why the security authorities did not notice him during this time, how he was able to bring a knife on board and whether he had connections to extremist groups.

For the time being, the incident also limits the ability of Israelis to leave their country by air. Since the US-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020, Dubai has increasingly become a hub for Israelis heading to Asia.

Flydubai has temporarily suspended flights to Israel for the duration of the investigation. Hundreds of stranded Israelis are initially stuck in Dubai. Starting Friday, Israeli airlines El Al, Arkia and Israir will bring back Israelis, according to the Israeli Ministry of Transport.