US President Donald Trump said that an Israeli plumber helped save a Flydubai plane after an attack in the cockpit. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
He stressed that he was recounting the story from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other people and did not know how reliable it was.
Answering journalists' questions at the White House, the US president said he had discussed the incident with Netanyahu.
"I spoke with Bibi [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] about this incident. It seems the co-pilot was possibly a terrorist or possibly crazy, and he stabbed the pilot with a knife," Trump said.
According to his version, the wounded commander managed to open the cockpit door, after which a passenger working as a plumber came to help. The man pulled the co-pilot out of his seat, and other passengers helped subdue him.
Trump claims the plumber then intervened in the control of the plane, which was descending sharply.
"The Israeli plumber, who had never flown a plane, pulled this guy out of the seat and threw him back, grabbed the yoke, pulled it up — and leveled the plane just before the crash," the US president said.
According to Trump, the passenger explained his actions by saying he had watched the TV program about plane crashes, Air Disasters. Later, the pilots on board took over the controls.
Trump separately stressed that he had not verified the accuracy of the information he received.
"This is a story I heard. I don't know if it's true, but it's a story I got from Bibi and a few other people," the American president said.
The incident occurred on September 30 on flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv. The plane made an emergency landing in the Saudi city of Tabuk.
According to Reuters, citing Israeli officials, passengers and crew members subdued the co-pilot. The landing was performed by another pair of Flydubai pilots who were on board. Flydubai urged against premature assumptions.
Earlier, Kursiv wrote about several versions of what happened on board. Media reports contained conflicting information about the citizenship of the pilots: initially it was reported that the co-pilot was Ukrainian and the commander was Russian. Later this information was refuted, and the co-pilot was named a citizen of Oman. The Russian Consulate General stated that there were no Russians on board.
The motives for the incident have not yet been established. Among the versions discussed are personal psychological problems and an attempted terrorist attack.