Israeli Prime Minister Speaks by Phone with Assassinated Dubai Aviation Captain

On October 3, the captain of the flydubai passenger plane involved in the security incident spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Captain Smit Machiel recounted details of the attack he suffered. Machiel said he was struck hard on the back of the head, but his first reaction was simply that the plane had malfunctioned. When he realized it was the co-pilot attacking him and tried to resist, his "vision became blurred, and he could hardly see anything," and he felt the plane was descending rapidly. He tried to open the cockpit door, but the co-pilot closed it again. Netanyahu praised Machiel for his "ability to maintain calm judgment in an extreme situation" and invited him to visit Israel. Israel's Channel 12 reported on October 3 that the co-pilot involved in the flydubai passenger plane incident had repeatedly flown flydubai's Dubai-to-Tel Aviv route. The last time the co-pilot involved landed a plane at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv was one week before the security incident occurred on September 30.