Netanyahu: "Cockpit knife attack was terrorism aimed at deliberately crashing plane...Heroic passengers prevented disaster"

[Financial News] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu officially classified the "cockpit knife attack" aboard a flydubai passenger aircraft that made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia as clear "terrorism" aimed at killing all the passengers.
According to The Associated Press and other foreign media outlets on the 30th local time, Netanyahu said in a video statement that it was "a very serious security incident in which one of the pilots stabbed his colleague and attempted to deliberately crash a plane carrying almost exclusively Israeli passengers." Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also described the incident as "an attempted terrorist attack by jihadists," emphasizing that the assailant's sole objective was to crash the aircraft.
The process by which passengers subdued the assailant, previously reported, was disclosed in greater detail through government statements. Netanyahu said he had spoken directly with the Israeli passenger involved in the incident and explained, "As the aircraft went into a steep dive, the passenger and a crew member broke through the cockpit door, tackled and restrained the pilot who was trying to damage the aircraft, and another crew member then entered and barely managed to stabilize the plane." He added, "I salute the heroes who prevented a horrific mass-casualty disaster through exceptional presence of mind and immense courage."
The pilot in question, who stabbed his colleague and caused the aircraft to descend, has been arrested by Saudi authorities and is reportedly undergoing intense questioning. As indications of an attempted hijacking and terrorism became increasingly clear, Israeli authorities instructed security agencies to prepare urgent measures to prevent similar copycat crimes in the future.
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