Israeli officials are expected to question the co-pilot who allegedly attempted to crash a commercial passenger flight from Dubai bound for Tel Aviv, according to a source briefed on the investigation.
Disaster was averted on flydubai flight FZ1073 on Wednesday after passengers and crew subdued the co-pilot, who had stabbed the captain in what Israeli officials have said was an apparent attempt to crash the plane carrying over 170 passengers and crew.
A reserve flydubai pilot crew travelling on the flight landed the plane at Tabuk airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where the co-pilot was detained by Saudi Arabian authorities.
The co-pilot was transferred on Thursday to the UAE, where the source said Israeli officials were expected to question him.
The source declined to say which Israeli agency or authority would take part in the questioning.
Asked whether Israeli officials would question the co-pilot, an Israeli government official told Reuters that Israeli investigators would take part in the UAE-led investigation alongside Emirati authorities, seeking to determine what happened and examine the suspect’s motives and background.
The UAE foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Israeli officials would question the co-pilot.
In his first public comments on the incident, flydubai Chief Executive Ghaith Al Ghaith said on Friday that authorities were conducting an official investigation, supported by the airline, after what he described as a “safety incident” in the cockpit.
“It is important that we allow this process to establish the facts,” he said in a written statement, acknowledging that there were “many questions” about what happened on flight FZ1073.
