President Trump suggested Thursday that Iran was behind the failed hijacking of an Israel-bound flydubai flight, warning the Islamic Republic would be struck “very hard” if it was proven to be behind the foiled terror attack.
“I would say the answer, based on what I’m hearing, is yes, but we’re working on it right now,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a pre-midterm campaign swing through Texas and Oklahoma in response to questions about a potential Iran link to the near-catastrophe.
The president did not elaborate about why he suspects Iranian involvement, but did say the unidentified Omani co-pilot who stabbed the flight’s captain — causing the plane to plummet before others on board stopped the attack and landed the airliner in Saudi Arabia — “could’ve been” an agent of Tehran’s notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
President Trump warned Iran will face retaliation if linked to a flydubai copilot who tried to crash an Israel-bound flight carrying over 180 people. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Asked if the US would retaliate against Tehran if it was behind the attack, Trump said, “Oh they’ll be hit, very hard, don’t worry.”
“You just ask them,” he added. “They know what happened. They’ll be hit very hard.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it is “too early to say” whether Iran was involved in the attack.
“First, we know that he underwent Islamist radical indoctrination,” Netanyahu told “Fox & Friends” Thursday morning, adding that the co-pilot demanded the passengers and flight crew “kill me” after they subdued him.
“It’s clear he was suicidal. That’s not a question,” Netanyahu added. “It was clear he was going to down that plane. It’s not clear, but it looks very likely that he was going to down the plane and with all the passengers in there. And if you couple that with what I just told you about, the Islamist tendencies that radicalization that were found in his background, I think that’s — that’ll give us the pretty good clue.
“But again, I don’t make final conclusions yet, but that’s the indications we have now.”
Asked if the US would retaliate against Tehran if it was behind the attack, Trump said, “Oh they’ll be hit, very hard, don’t worry.” Aaron Schwartz / Pool via CNP / SplashNews.com
Passengers on the plane — which was carrying 182 people, mostly Israelis, from Dubai to Tel Aviv — have described how the bloodied Indian captain managed to open the cockpit door to let them in before they grappled with the co-pilot and stabilized a descent so sharp that the plane’s rudder was torn away.
“We felt helpless, suspended in midair, and I didn’t know who to turn to. But it was all instinct to survive,” Asaf Rajuan, who was among those who intervened, said in a statement shared by Israel’s presidency.
On Friday, a top UAE official praised the captain, Smit Machchhar, for his actions and labeled the attack an act of terrorism.
Anwar Gargash, an adviser to Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed, said on X that Machchhar “deserves every bit of appreciation, for he embodied the meaning of courage and responsibility in the face of a dangerous terrorist act and a potential disaster. His professionalism and moral sense in the darkest of circumstances make him a true hero.”
The co-pilot of a flydubai plane is seen injured and bound in a video circulated on Sept. 30, 2026. East2West
Netanyahu told Fox that the suspect apparently got through a loophole in Israeli aviation rules that normally bar pilots from flying to Israel if they are from countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel, which Oman does not.
Captain Smit Machchhar, the Indian captain of flydubai Flight 1073, fought back after being stabbed in the cockpit, managing to unlock the cockpit door to allow Israeli passengers and Emirati crew to intervene. Israel Foreign Ministry
Video shot inside the plane by Dr. Shota Musayev, a dentist who treated the captain, shows the co-pilot on his knees, with his hands tied behind his back.
Machchhar was recovering in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi, the Indian government said Thursday.
It was not clear what the co-pilot used as a weapon.
Israeli intelligence and security officials were in Saudi Arabia to help investigate the co-pilot, according to another regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Israel has requested that the co-pilot be sent to Israel for the investigation, though it was unclear if that request would be granted, the official said.
Saudi Arabia does not have formal diplomatic ties with Israel, but the countries have long cooperated on security and intelligence matters through alternative channels.
On Wednesday, Trump told reporters at the White House that he and Netanyahu discussed the incident “at length” by phone. He said it seemed as though the co-pilot “was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack job.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu meets Yaniv Hayun, who broke into the cockpit on a flight from Dubai to Israel, at Ben Gurion Airport. Kobi Gideon / GPO
Oman’s government has not commented.
Netanyahu had warned in recent days of heightened security threats, though he told CNN that Israel had received no specific warning.
The country is a week away from the third anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which has triggered the war in Gaza, and weeks away from an election.
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The Israeli Foreign Ministry said most of the people aboard the flight were from Israel, along with others from India and the UAE.
The US State Department said four passengers had American citizenship.
Someone in the cockpit sent out two four-digit codes to discreetly signal distress while the plane flew erratically near the Jordanian border with Saudi Arabia, according to Flightradar24.com.
The Tel Aviv-bound flight was cruising at about 34,000 feet when it plummeted some 18,000 feet in two minutes. via REUTERS
The first code was “7700,” the universal “squawk” signal for an emergency, then “7500,” which indicates unlawful interference, including a possible hijacking.
The codes are used by pilots when it’s impossible or dangerous for them to speak over the radio.
The airline said Wednesday that the jet was secured by on-duty crew members “who diverted and landed the aircraft safely.”
A regional official said the crew members were pilots in training. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
In the chaos that began about two and a half hours after takeoff, the Boeing 737 Max 8 descended from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet in about a minute, before making an erratic circle close to the Jordanian border and landing in Tabuk, according to Flightradar24.
With Post wires