'Israel's 9/11': 4 things to know about the FlyDubai attack
4. Netanyahu says co-pilot was radicalized
In an interview this week with “Fox & Friends,” Netanyahu said the co-pilot had undergone “Islamist radical indoctrination” before attacking Machchhar. He added that it’s “too early” to determine whether the co-pilot had ties to Iran.
Netanyahu said that after passengers subdued the co-pilot, he started saying, “kill me, kill me.”
“So it’s clear he was suicidal,” Netanyahu said. “It's not clear, but it looks very likely that he was going to down that plane.”
Netanyahu also questioned how the suspect was allowed to fly into Israel, given Israel’s restrictions on foreign pilots.
“He was an Omani national and we have constraints that say you can’t have pilots [...] from countries that don’t have diplomatic relations with Israel,” he said.
“Obviously there was a loophole here, and we’re taking care of that, among other things,” he added.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
