Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says investigations suggest the man who stabbed his fellow pilot and tried to take over a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv had undergone “Islamist radical indoctrination”.
The Flydubai plane plunged more than 17,000ft (5,200m) two hours into its journey on Wednesday, before passengers and crew overpowered the attacker and retook control to land safely.
Netanyahu told Fox News that it was looking “very likely” that the attacker, who he said was an Omani national, “was going to down the plane”.
Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) state news agency reports investigations have begun there to determine “whether the incident was linked to any terrorist activity or purpose”.
The Interior Ministry of Saudi Arabia – where the plane made an emergency landing – said that both the pilot and co-pilot had been sent back to the UAE on Thursday morning after medical teams had cleared them.
UAE officials earlier claimed jurisdiction over the incident because the aircraft on which the attack took place is registered there and flies under its flag.
Netanyahu told Fox that once the attacker had been subdued and tied up by passengers and crew, he was “calling out to the aircrew ‘kill me, kill me’, so it’s clear he was suicidal – that’s not a question”.