Netanyahu says flydubai pilot, Israelis who stormed cockpit ‘managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster’

Appearing on CNN, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that those who thwarted the copilot of a flydubai flight from an apparent attempt to crash the plane “managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster.”

“That’s what it looks like was happening as far as the specific motivations of this,” Netanyahu tells the US cable network.

It’s not immediately clear if Netanyahu is suggesting that the copilot’s goal was to fly the plane into a building after attacking the pilot. The premier was earlier told by one of the Israelis who stormed the cockpit that the copilot was “trying to destroy the controls in order to disable the plane,” which at the time was over Saudi Arabia.

Netanyahu turns to his call with US President Donald Trump, who he hold “about this amazing, amazing act of heroism that saved a disaster that would have been not only a disaster for Israel, but you can imagine how it could affect the global aviation.”

“What distinguishes this incident from the other tragic attacks was at this time, the good guys won,” the prime minister adds.

He also says there was no prior intelligence about the attack.