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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has named the pilot who was stabbed during the attempted hijacking of the FlyDubai flight, calling him a “true hero”.
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who → log → him
In a post on X, he wrote: “My salute to the Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his extraordinary bravery.
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he → write → bravery
Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster”.
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he → stab → disaster
Terrified passengers travelling on Flydubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Israel described bloody scenes as the plane descended approximately 13,000 feet in 30 seconds during the chaos Wednesday morning.
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plane → travel → chaos
One passenger named Yaniv told Netanyahu that he put the alleged attempted hijacker “in a chokehold”.
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he → name → chokehold
He said "before he [the stabbed pilot] collapsed" he managed to open the door to the cockpit, adding: “I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold, and pulled him — first and foremost — outside."
Yaniv then said he "pulled the controls [of the plane]" to level the plane out, before the stabbed pilot took control.
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pilot → say → control
The suspected hijacker has been arrested and is being interrogated by Saudi authorities.
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hijacker → suspect → authorities
'We simply said goodbye', woman reveals moments with family during foiled flight attack
Hila Gaier, who was on board the Flydubai flight with her daughters and partner, described the tense moments when they all bid goodbye to each other as the hijacking attempt unfolded.
She said her daughters were scared as “complete chaos” broke out during the flight and the plane plunged.
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plane → say → flight
She told Israeli public broadcaster Kan 11 Radio that her daughter was about to go to the restroom when the plane hit what she thought was “insane turbulence.”
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she → tell → turbulence
“My daughters were hugging me, and we simply said goodbye to each other,” she said.
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she → hug → other
“I told them, ‘My beloved girls, I love you.’
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I → tell → you
My partner looked at me and said, ‘I love you.’
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I → look → you
We were simply staring death in the face.”
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We → star → face
Overhead bins opened, the power went out, and the communications system and screens all went down, Gaier said.
“You have no idea what’s happening, and it just keeps going and going,” she said.
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she → open → idea
said the plane, carrying families with children, was filled with “terrifying screams”.
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plane → say → screams
All we know about ‘hijacking’ attempt on flight to Israel as suspect arrested
A pilot on an Israel-bound flight stabbed another pilot and may have deliberately tried to crash the plane before passengers wrestled back control and the aircraft landed safely in Saudi Arabia.
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aircraft → know → Arabia
Flydubai flight FZ1073 was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday when it suddenly plummeted 14,000ft in less than 30 seconds, before putting out an emergency signal and changing course over Jordan.
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it → travel → Jordan
Israeli officials said the co-pilot of the Boeing 737 plane is believed to have stabbed the captain in a possible attempted ‘terror attack’ with around 150 Israeli passengers on board.
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pilot → say → board
The incident has heightened security fears in Israel weeks before Israelis vote in the first election since the Hamas-led October 7 attack, with security a defining issue.
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security → heighten → attack
Trump says Flydubai jet incident was 'perhaps a terrorist or a whack job'
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incident → say → ?
Donald Trump has suggested the co-pilot involved in an incident aboard a Flydubai passenger aircraft may have been a “terrorist” or was acting irrationally, as he recounted an extraordinary version of events relayed to him by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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he → suggest → Netanyahu
The US president told reporters on Wednesday that he had spoken to Netanyahu about the incident, which reportedly involved a confrontation between the pilots of a flight travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
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which → tell → Aviv
“I think it’s an incredible story,” Trump said.
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Trump → think → ?
He claimed it appeared the “co-pilot was perhaps a terrorist, or perhaps a whack-job, and he stabbed the pilot”.
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he → claim → pilot
Trump then recounted an account he said he received from Netanyahu involving an Israeli plumber who had no experience flying an aircraft but intervened after hearing screams and realising something was wrong in the cockpit.
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something → recount → cockpit
“Having never flown a plane, he took the stick, lifted it up, and levelled out the plane before it crashed,” Trump said.
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Trump → fly → plane
The president acknowledged that he could not independently confirm the account.
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he → acknowledge → account
“Now this is the story that I heard.
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I → hear → that
I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s the story that I got from Bibi,” he said.
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he → know → Bibi
Trump said Netanyahu told him the passenger knew what to do because he regularly watched the television programme Air Disasters.
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he → say → programme
“When asked why he did that, he said, ‘He watches that show Air Disasters,’” Trump said, adding that the passenger had apparently learned “sort of how to fly” from the programme.
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passenger → ask → programme
Reports said the confrontation triggered a hijacking code before the aircraft eventually landed in Saudi Arabia.
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aircraft → say → Arabia
Israeli officials say incident could be treated as 'terrorist attack' and not mental health issue
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incident → say → attack
The co-pilot of a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv is believed to have stabbed the captain in a possible attempted "terror attack" on Wednesday, forcing the plane to divert to Saudi Arabia where it landed safely, three Israeli officials said.
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officials → believe → Arabia
They said the cabin crew entered the cockpit and took control of flydubai flight FZ1073 from the United Arab Emirates to Israel, which diverted to Saudi Arabia as it flew over Jordanian airspace.
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it → say → airspace
One of the officials identified the attacker as an Omani national.
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One → identify → national
An Israeli official had earlier told Reuters the plane transmitted emergency signals after the pilots got into a physical altercation with each other.
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pilots → tell → other
Around the time the plane landed in Saudi Arabia, Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister's office, told Reuters the incident was not believed to have been a hijacking, describing it as a "different incident".
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incident → land → incident
The Israeli officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to brief reporters, said Israel's current assessment is that the incident was an attempted "terror attack" and not related to any kind of mental health issue with either of the pilots.
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incident → speak → pilots
Watch: Passengers film moments after suspected hijacking on Israel-bound flight
Modi hails Indian pilot who helped avert attempted hijacking
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has become the latest to praise the flight captain Smit Machchhar for his bravery during the FlyDubai flight.
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Modi → watch → flight
…and 11 more, not listed.
The Aporia
