Published : 01 Oct 2026, 07:53 PM
Updated : 01 Oct 2026, 07:53 PM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the co-pilot who tried to crash a passenger jet travelling to Israel had undergone Islamist radicalisation.
"We know that he underwent Islamist indoctrination," Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News.
No motive has been determined for Wednesday's incident on flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, when passengers were able to overpower the attacker and a reserve crew aboard landed the plane in Saudi Arabia.
Netanyahu told "Fox & Friends" that he expected to know within days whether the co-pilot had any links to Iran.
"I think it's too early to say whether he had any connections with Iran or with anyone else," he said.
Netanyahu said it was clear that the co-pilot was suicidal.
"If you couple that with what I just told you about the Islamist tendencies, that radicalisation that is found in his background, I think that'll give us a pretty good clue," he said. "But again, I haven't made any final conclusions yet. But that's the indication we have now."
