
FROM HEROISM TO IRAN: Watch: Netanyahu Tells CBS Flydubai Attack Appears to Have Been Suicide Mission, Says Iranian Link Still Unclear
[Full video below.] Israeli Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu said Israel will take part in the investigation of the Flydubai co-pilot accused of stabbing the captain and trying to bring down an Israel-bound passenger jet, while cautioning that it remains too early to determine whether Iran played any role in the attack.
In an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil following Wednesday’s extraordinary incident, Netanyahu offered new details about what Israeli officials believe happened aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073 and praised the passengers and crew members whose actions helped save the 174 people aboard.
“I don’t think it was a hijacking,” Netanyahu said.
Rather, Netanyahu said the evidence available thus far suggests that the attacker was attempting to destroy the aircraft rather than seize control of it and take it somewhere else.
“I think it looks like a suicide attempt simply because of what this hero Yaniv described when he went in,” Netanyahu said, referring to Israeli passenger Yaniv Hayun, who entered the cockpit and helped overpower the attacking co-pilot.
Netanyahu said Hayun’s account of what he encountered inside the cockpit was particularly significant.
“This guy was trying to jam the equipment between the two flight seats, the pilot seats,” Netanyahu said. “He wasn’t sitting in the pilot seat trying to stabilize the plane, he was trying to jam the equipment.”
WATCH:
{Matzav.com}