Stranded Israelis to return home as repatriation flights from UAE begin on Friday after flydubai incident

Israel will begin repatriation flights on Friday to bring back passengers stranded in the United Arab Emirates after commercial travel between the two countries was suspended in the wake of the attack on a pilot by his copilot who tried to crash a Tel Avivbound flight this weekThe effort to get Israeli passengers home comes as authorities in Israel Saudi Arabia the UAE and beyond are grappling with the fallout from the incident on board the FlyDubai flight Wednesday that has raised questions about the state of aviation security and further unsettled a Middle East already shaken by the ongoing USIran warNothing is publicly known about the motive of the copilot who came close to crashing the aircraft which had departed from Dubai earlier Wednesday and killing all 182 aboard A regional investigation is underwayThe UAE has cancelled all flights to Israel complicating travel for hundreds of passengers who fly between the countries on a typical dayIsrael and the UAE agreed on the repatriation flights beginning on Friday according to an Israeli official who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity Earlier the national carrier El Al had said the UAE was holding up the necessary landing permits to allow it to fly into DubaiThe Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv listed carriers Arkia and Israir with flights scheduled to arrive from Dubai late Friday and early Saturday El Al was expected to fly passengers from Dubai to Israel on SundayDubai has been a popular destination for Israelis since Israel and the United Arab Emirates established ties in 2020 as part of the Trump administrations Abraham Accords to normalise ties between Israel and Arab countriesTrump says hell hit Iran very hard if it had a hand in the attackIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on Thursday that the copilot identified by Israeli officials as an Omani citizen had undergone Islamist radical indoctrination but provided no evidence to back the assertionSimilarly US President Donald Trump told reporters that early information hes received suggests there are links between the attack and Tehran but did not elaborateTrump also said that if it is determined that Iranian agents were behind the attack the United States will hit them very hardIsraeli investigators are involved in the probe but the Emiratis are in the lead according to an official who wasnt authorised to speak to the media and spoke on condition of anonymityIts unclear if the attacker was part of a group said the official adding that there is currently no evidence of a link with IranThe FlyDubai flight plummeted to 15000 feetDetails of the harrowing flight which made an emergency landing in Tabuk Saudi Arabia continue to emergeSmit Machchhar the wounded captain who has been hailed as one of the heroes of the flight and the copilot were transferred on Thursday from Saudi Arabia to the UAE the kingdom saidFor the passengers on board most of them Israelis the first signs of trouble came more than two hours into the flight when the aircraft suddenly dropped down to 16600 feet the sharpest drop in altitude recorded by data tracking platformsSeconds later it ascended to 21725 feet before soon dropping back to 15000 feet which it maintained until safely landing more than an hour laterSoon after levelling off the plane dispatched its first distress signal Squawk 7700 a code for general emergency while flying along the SaudiJordanian border It then sent a second distress signal 7500 for unlawful interference indicating something more serious like a hijacking attempt or an attack It lasted for nearly an hourAbout 15 minutes after the second distress call the aircraft turned west briefly entering Jordanian airspace then made a 180degree turn and headed southwest to Tabuk where it eventually landed nearly four hours after taking off from DubaiPossible implications for USIran war negotiationsTrumps suggestion that there could be an Iranian link adds a new layer of uncertainty to the onandoff diplomatic efforts aimed at bringing an end to the sevenmonth war in IranIranian officials said Wednesday they received an official US response to Tehrans latest proposal to end the conflict which Trump had publicly rejected just days earlier The officials did not say what the response contained and whether it was a rejectionThe US is meanwhile dispatching roughly 9000 more troops on ships to the Middle East a US official said Thursday a move that could further complicate the political climate in the US with looming midterm electionsThe ships include the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group which recently deployed with the cruiser USS Chosin and the USS Makin Island amphibious readiness group which includes the USS John P Murtha and USS Anchorage amphibious landing shipsThat could mean there would be three carriers in the region as early as the end of October according to the US official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operationsThe move would bring the US naval presence in the Middle East to an unusually high number of more than 20000 sailors and Marines as well as hundreds of aircraft The Navy previously had three carrier strike groups in the Middle East in April for the first time since 2003Trump has threatened that a postelection escalation remains possible despite his initial promises to Americans of a campaign that would last a matter of weeksThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever