US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he had spoken “at length” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the dramatic incident aboard a Flydubai flight bound for Israel, and said the co-pilot may have been either “a terrorist” or “a whack job.”
“I did speak to Bibi Netanyahu at length about this event,” Trump told reporters. “It seems as though the co-pilot was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack job, and he stabbed the pilot.”
According to Trump’s account, the pilot was badly wounded but managed to open the cockpit door and call for help.
“The pilot was in very bad shape, and I guess he still is in very bad shape,” Trump said. “But he had the sense to… open the door. You know, those doors are solid steel. You can’t get them open from outside.”
Trump then described what he called an “amazing” intervention by an Israeli passenger whom he identified as a plumber.
Trump says Israeli plumber leveled out, saved plane
The passenger, Trump said, had never flown an aircraft and had rarely even traveled by plane. He was near the front of the aircraft when he heard the commotion from the cockpit.
Trump said the passenger entered the cockpit, pulled the co-pilot out of his seat and threw him backward, where other passengers helped restrain him.
At that stage, Trump said, the aircraft was descending at an extreme angle.
“The plane was going sharply down at an unbelievable angle,” he said, adding that the aircraft had exceeded its normal operating limits.
The president claimed that the Israeli passenger then grabbed the control stick and managed to level the plane before it crashed.
“Having never flown a plane, he took the stick, lifted it up, and leveled out the plane before it crashed,” Trump said.
According to Trump, the passenger later said he had learned some basic concepts about flying from watching the television program Air Disasters.
“He said he watches it a lot, and he learned from watching that show sort of how to fly,” Trump said.
Trump said additional pilots and security personnel, who had been toward the rear of the aircraft, subsequently reached the cockpit and took control.
“I think it’s the most amazing story,” he said.
Trump cautions that this is 'the story that [he] got'
However, Trump repeatedly cautioned that he was relaying an account he had received rather than independently confirmed facts.
“Now this is the story that I heard. I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s the story that I got from Bibi and from a couple of probably early [sources],” he said.
Trump also stopped short of asserting that the co-pilot had definitely intended to crash the aircraft.
“They said he wanted to crash. They don’t know that. They don’t know that kind of information,” he said.
The president ended by again praising the Israeli passenger, referring to him as a “Jewish plumber” who had shown extraordinary presence of mind during the incident.