Trump says Netanyahu told him ‘Israeli plumber’ stabilized hijacked flight

“A plumber, an Israeli plumber, never flew a plane, was rarely in planes, very rarely flew,” Trump said. “An Israeli plumber saw what was happening. Strong, you know, when you lift pipe all day, you’re strong. And he saw what was going on. He heard the screaming. … The plane was going sharply down at an unbelievable angle, so sharp that the rudder ripped off the back of the plane. Plane wasn’t designed to go at a speed anywhere near that, and so it was well beyond its limits. … He ripped this guy out of the seat, threw him back. The crowd got him. The passengers got him. Grabbed him. And having never flown a plane, he took the stick, lifted it up, and leveled out the plane before it crashed.”

According to Netanyahu’s account, the passengers, many of whom were Israeli, were saved when a passenger and crew member managed to break into the cockpit after the stabbed pilot opened the door, stopping the pilot as he attempted to damage the plane’s systems. After subduing the pilot, another crew member entered the cockpit and stabilized the plane.

“I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s the story that I got from Bibi,” Trump said, referring to Netanyahu.

The prime minister did not identify the passenger who stabilized the plane as a plumber, but Trump said he received the information in a private phone call. The pilot who unlocked the cockpit door of a hijacked Flydubai flight after getting stabbed was identified by officials as Indian national Smit Machchhar.

NETANYAHU SAYS ONE PILOT STABBED THE OTHER AND TRIED TO CRASH FLYDUBAI PLANE

Netanyahu said the plane was ultimately diverted and landed in Saudi Arabia, where the pilot who attempted the hijacking is now being interrogated by Saudi authorities.

The prime minister didn’t offer up a motive for the pilot’s actions, but Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz quickly characterized the incident as a “jihadist terrorist attack attempt.” Some reports have suggested the pilot was an Omani national, but officials have yet to release details.

Trump, however, said the situation seemed as if the pilot was a “terrorist or, perhaps, a whack job.”