Israel PM hails Indian pilot wounded in diverted flydubai flight

Israel’s leader credited the Indian pilot of a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight, as well as the aircraft’s passengers, with averting catastrophe on Wednesday after the man was attacked by his co-pilot, sparking a fight for control of the aircraft and forcing an emergency landing.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the co-pilot of the flydubai jet had been trying to crash it and kill all its passengers, with Israel’s foreign ministry denouncing the incident as “an attempted terrorist attack” aimed at damaging the country’s relationship with one of its key Middle Eastern partners.

Passengers gave a similar account of the incident, describing rushing the cockpit after the plane suddenly plummeted, losing around 17,000 feet (5,200 metres) of altitude in the span of a minute, according to the Flightradar24 website.

Flydubai said all the passengers – of whom 166 out of 174 were Israeli, according to media reports – were safe, adding that the reasons for the altercation were unknown.