From the Liveblog of
Friday, October 2, 2026
In first, senior UAE official calls flydubai plane attack an ‘act of terrorism’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleNurit Yohanan is The Times of Israel's Palestinian and Arab world correspondent
Anwar Gargash, an adviser to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, describes the attempted crashing of a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv as an “act of terrorism,” in a post to X.
In the post, Gargash refers to Indian pilot Smit Machchhar, whom the copilot stabbed in an apparent effort to crash the plane, but who managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to rush in and subdue the attacker. Gargash writes that Machchhar deserves recognition because he “showed the meaning of courage when he confronted a dangerous and potentially catastrophic act of terrorism.”
يستحق الطيار الهندي في "فلاي دبي" سميت ماتشهار كل التقدير، فقد جسّد في مواجهة عمل ارهابي خطير وكارثة محتملة معنى الشجاعة والمسؤولية. مهنيته وحسّه الأخلاقي في أحلك الظروف يجعلان منه بطلاً حقيقياً.
بعيدا عن الاختزال السهل لما جرى أو تبني وترويج نظريات المؤامرة، تبقى اليقظة…
— د. أنور قرقاش (@AnwarGargash) October 2, 2026
Gargash is the first senior Emirati official to publicly characterize the incident in those terms.
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