The flydubai staffer accused of trying to hijack a plane carrying 174 people to Israel by stabbing the lead pilot was known as a religious extremist who refused to shake hands with women, according to a colleague.
The co-pilot responsible for what Israel’s defense minister called “a jihadist terrorist attack” Wednesday has not been named publicly, but was an Omani national who had worked for the airline for less than a year.
He was “someone characterized by very strange behavior, especially around religious observances that were out of step with his surroundings,” a fellow pilot told Israel’s Channel 16 journalist Yosef Yisrael.
“For instance, he used to pray a lot, and would not shake hands with women,” Yisrael said of what the pilot told him on the condition of anonymity.
The colleague claimed flydubai – a sister airline of Emirates – had “betrayed” the Jewish State by hiring the pilot who others have said seemed desperate to crash the plane in another 9/11.
“There is no other way to put it, we hired the services of a terrorist and nearly caused the deaths of 180 people,” the co-worker reportedly told the journalist.
“Usually only Emiratis fly to Israel. It is not clear how he got on this flight.”
It remains unclear how the Omani national was able to work the flydubai flight to Tel Aviv, which was eventually landed by two off-duty pilots in Saudi Arabia.
To land in Israel, pilots must hold passports from countries which have diplomatic relations with the Jewish State, and Israel and Oman do not have such diplomatic relations
Miri Regev, the Israeli government’s transportation minister, called for the country’s Civil Aviation Authority to investigate whether the United Arab Emirates has breached its aviation agreement with Israel, the Times of Israel reported Wednesday, hours after the plane landed in Saudi Arabia by two relief pilots.
“This is a clear breach of the agreement,” a transportation ministry source told the Jerusalem Post – calling for Israel’s Security Agency to investigate.
Flydubai flights to and from Israel have been temporarily suspended and Israel is ramping up security checks on pilots.
“Every pilot that is going to be flying into Israel, we are going to know the pilots’ identities, know who they are, and do some type of security check,” Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, said.
“Anywhere that an Israeli is going to be flying into Israel. Our job right now is to do our best — even if they’re not on Israeli airlines — to make sure that those security procedures are much higher.”
With Post wires.
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