Trump warns of 'very hard' Iran strike over FlyDubai attack — SkimNews
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- Trump warned Iran would be struck "very hard" if the FlyDubai copilot is found linked to Tehran, saying "based on what I'm hearing" the answer is yes; he also told Time he would not accept Iranian proposals he "wouldn't have approved a year ago" and left open resuming bombing after the November 3 US election
- The FlyDubai copilot allegedly stabbed his captain mid-air on a Tel Aviv-bound flight carrying 182 people; the Boeing 737 Max 8 plunged from 33,000 to 17,000 feet in about a minute before passengers and on-duty crew trainees overpowered him and the plane landed in Saudi Arabia's Tabuk, with its rudder torn off
- Flightradar24 data showed someone in the cockpit transmitted distress code 7700 (general emergency) followed by 7500 (unlawful interference/hijacking) as the jet flew erratically near the Jordanian-Saudi border
- Indian Captain Smit Machchhar, who was widely praised after the incident, is recovering in Abu Dhabi; he managed to open the cockpit door despite being bloodied, letting passengers grapple the attacker
- The suspect, identified as an Omani citizen, was handed over to the UAE after Saudi arrest; investigators from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the US, and Oman are working across jurisdictions, and Netanyahu said the attacker exploited a loophole barring pilots from countries without Israeli diplomatic relations (like Oman)
- Netanyahu said the attacker had undergone "Islamist indoctrination" but declined to say how he knew; he told CNN Israel had received no specific warning, while the UAE opened its own probe into whether the attack was "linked to any terrorist purpose"
- The US military dispatched roughly 9,000 troops with a carrier group to the Middle East — potentially putting three carriers in the region by late October — as mediators continue efforts to end the seven-month Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz despite Trump's public rejection of Tehran's latest proposal
Why it matters: If investigators confirm Iranian links, the administration has a potential casus belli at a moment when roughly 9,000 additional US troops are already converging on the Middle East and Trump's own public posture has hardened — he rejected Iran's latest proposal and left open resuming bombing after the November 3 election. The incident thus lands at the worst possible inflection point for the stalled seven-month war.
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