Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly identified the Omani co-pilot who attacked an Israel-bound flight as a radical Islamist on a suicide mission.
The Israeli Prime Minister, 75, made the characterization Thursday during an appearance on “Fox & Friends,” where he detailed the mid-air assault that nearly brought down flydubai flight FZ 1543 with 174 people aboard. The unnamed co-pilot had “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination” before turning on his Indian lead pilot about 2.5 hours into Wednesday’s journey from Dubai to Tel Aviv, Netanyahu said.
The violence erupted at approximately 34,000 feet over Saudi Arabian airspace. The lead pilot suffered devastating injuries in the assault, with Netanyahu describing how “his arm was basically split in two” and he was stabbed in the head. The aircraft plunged 17,000 feet in roughly two minutes as chaos consumed the cockpit, according to Israeli media accounts the prime minister referenced.
Netanyahu credited ordinary Israeli passengers with preventing catastrophe. These travelers “became superheroes” when they stormed the cockpit, subdued the attacker, and restrained him using a headphone cord, the prime minister said. The co-pilot’s behavior immediately after capture reinforced Netanyahu’s assessment of his intentions.
“kill me, kill me,” the bound co-pilot begged the flight crew, according to Netanyahu’s account on the Fox News morning program.
“So it’s clear he was suicidal,” Netanyahu continued. “That’s not a question. It was clear he was going to down that plane.”
The Israeli leader framed the successful intervention as almost beyond belief in its dramatic arc. “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,” he said on “Fox & Friends.”
Despite the catastrophic damage to the pilot and the rapid descent, the aircraft was brought down safely. The lead pilot’s condition following the arm injury and head stabbing was not detailed in Netanyahu’s remarks, though his ability to continue operating was clearly compromised given the passenger takeover.
The flydubai flight had originated in Dubai, a major hub for the United Arab Emirates-based low-cost carrier, and was bound for Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport. The route connects two countries that established formal diplomatic relations in 2020 under the Abraham Accords, though the attack occurred on a standard commercial service rather than any diplomatic or special mission flight.
Netanyahu’s decision to discuss the incident on American morning television rather than through Israeli channels underscored both the international dimensions of the case and his government’s framing of it as terrorism requiring global attention. The prime minister offered no additional details about where or when the co-pilot had undergone the alleged radical indoctrination, nor did he specify any organizational affiliation.
The Omani national’s identity has been withheld by authorities, and no charges or legal proceedings were described in Netanyahu’s televised remarks. Oman itself maintains no formal diplomatic relations with Israel, unlike its Gulf neighbors the UAE and Bahrain.