"The Co-pilot Who Tried to Crash an Israeli Passenger Plane Was a Religious Extremist"

[Financial News]  

Questions have been raised over whether the Omani co-pilot accused of deliberately trying to crash a passenger plane carrying Israeli passengers had been influenced by religious extremism.
Israel’s Channel 16 reported on Sept. 30 (local time) the contents of an interview with a pilot who said the flydubai co-pilot who stabbed the Indian captain and tried to crash the plane had joined the airline only eight months earlier and displayed religiously extremist tendencies.
The pilot said the co-pilot in question prayed excessively throughout the day and even refused to shake hands with women.
Earlier that morning, aboard a Boeing 737 MAX passenger plane operated by flydubai and traveling from Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), to Tel Aviv, Israel, the co-pilot stabbed the captain with a weapon and sent the aircraft into a steep descent. The aircraft, which was in danger of crashing, escaped the crisis after three Israeli passengers and crew members broke through the cockpit door, entered the cockpit and subdued the co-pilot.
Two off-duty pilots who were traveling as passengers took control of the aircraft and stabilized it. They then diverted the plane to Tabuk Airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where it made a safe emergency landing.
Although part of the aircraft’s tail wing was damaged, all the passengers arrived safely in Israel on an alternate flight.
The Indian captain, who was stabbed with a weapon, and the Omani co-pilot, who was subdued, are hospitalized in Saudi Arabia. The Indian captain’s condition is reportedly critical.
Saudi authorities are questioning the co-pilot, who is being held as a suspect, at the hospital about his motive and whether anyone was behind the attack.
Meanwhile, according to Israel’s Channel 12, authorities believe the co-pilot took control of the aircraft and tried to crash it with all the passengers aboard. However, they suspect it was a lone act rather than an attack ordered by any particular group.

[email protected] Song Kyung-jae Reporter