- US President Trump hinted at an Iran link to the flydubai incident, and investigations are ongoing
- Trump said the co-pilot could have been placed or radicalised by Iran's IRGC based on initial information
- Israeli PM Netanyahu said it is too early to confirm any Iran connection to the co-pilot's actions
A day after a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv was thrown into chaos, US President Donald Trump has hinted that Iran may have a link to the flydubai incident, saying the answer is "yes" based on what he is hearing, though checks are still under way.
Trump was asked by a reporter whether anyone had briefed him on a possible link between the flydubai attacker and Iran. He said his team was looking into it.
"We're working on that right now. We'll be very open with it. Uh, I would say the answer based on what I'm hearing is yes, but we're working on it right now," Trump said. There has been no official evidence of Iranian involvement yet.
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The reporter then asked if the man might have been placed on the plane by the IRGC, or radicalised in some other way before deciding to bring the aircraft down. "Could have been, yeah," Trump replied.
Earlier, Trump hailed the Indian Captain Smit Machachhar, who was stabbed by the co-pilot, as a "hero" for fighting off a knife attack and opening the cockpit door and calling for help to foil a bid to crash the aircraft.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked about the same issue in an interview with Fox News on Thursday. He said it was not yet possible to link the co-pilot to Iran or anyone else.
"I think it's too early to say whether he had any connections with Iran or with anyone else," he said. He told "Fox & Friends" that he would be able to say within a matter of days whether there were any such links.
READ | "Kill Me, Kill Me": Netanyahu Says Omani Co-Pilot Was Suicidal, Radicalised
Netanyahu did say the co-pilot had gone through Islamist radicalisation. "We know that he underwent Islamist radical indoctrination," he said. He added that this appeared to come from the man's personal information. "That appears to be something we're gathering from his personal information," he said.
Wednesday's flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv ended in a near-disaster. Passengers and the captain managed to overpower the co-pilot and stop him from crashing the plane. Two reserve pilots on board then landed it in Saudi Arabia.
Passengers, including a plumber, stepped in to stop the co-pilot's alleged attempts to jam the plane's instruments. Passengers and officials have said the captain was "stabbed". Investigators have not shared details of the weapon, although Netanyahu said the captain was stabbed or hit with an axe.
So far, no motive has been determined. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar told NDTV that the co-pilot was an Omani national, but he has not yet been publicly identified. International investigators are trying to understand why he allegedly attacked the captain and tried to take control of the plane. The UAE said it is looking into whether the violence was linked to "terrorist activity."
