Israeli authorities are investigating how an Omani religious extremist, accused of stabbing his co-pilot during an attempted hijacking branded “Israel’s 9/11,” was permitted to serve on the flight.

Passengers and crew reportedly overpowered the pilot after he attacked his colleague and tried to seize control of a Flydubai aircraft travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning.

As the aircraft plunged 14,000 feet in only 29 seconds, those on board fought to restore control. Captain Smit Machchhar, suffering serious stab wounds, was left lying in a pool of blood on the cockpit floor. An off-duty British pilot is believed to have been among the passengers who helped subdue the attacker.

Another pilot has since alleged that the assailant, believed to be an Omani national, displayed signs of religious extremism.

Yosef Yisrael, a foreign affairs editor and news anchor for Israel’s Channel 16, said he had spoken with a colleague of the accused pilot who asked not to be identified.

According to Mr Yisrael’s Hebrew-language report, the colleague described the pilot as behaving in an unusually religious manner that appeared out of place among his Flydubai colleagues. He allegedly prayed frequently and refused to shake hands with women.

Mr Yisrael said his source expressed regret and accused Flydubai of having “betrayed Israel”.

“There is no other way to put it—we hired the services of a terrorist and nearly caused the deaths of 180 people,” Mr Yisrael quoted the source as saying. “Usually only Emiratis fly to Israel. It is not clear how he got on this flight.”

Israel is examining how the alleged attacker passed security checks and was approved to operate a flight bound for Tel Aviv. Oman has no diplomatic relations with Israel, while foreign flight crews operating into Israeli airspace are subject to strict controls.

Flydubai has suspended flights to and from Israel while it investigates the incident.

Flight FZ1073 changed course over Jordanian airspace on Wednesday morning before eventually landing at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia.

The crew issued a general emergency alert using squawk code 7700, a four-digit signal used to notify air traffic controllers of an in-flight emergency, as the aircraft turned around near the Jordan-Saudi border.

While over Saudi Arabia, the aircraft briefly transmitted code 7500, which indicates unlawful interference or a possible hijacking. Officials feared the incident could develop into another September 11-style attack, while reports said passengers had restrained the suspect and stopped an alleged “Israeli 9/11”.

A source who heard the crew’s mayday communication with air traffic control said the aircraft was redirected by Saudi Arabia and Jordan before being cleared to land in Tabuk, a major city in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

The anonymous source said the pilot sounded shaken as he repeatedly called “mayday”, reported that a hijacking was under way and warned that ambulances would be required after landing.

Saudi authorities initially refused permission to land and instructed the aircraft to seek clearance from Jordan. The plane was then told to wait for approval from the Jordanian military before being turned away.

The pilot subsequently returned toward Saudi Arabia and said he had no choice but to land in Tabuk. Air traffic controllers did not explain why the earlier landing requests had been rejected.

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 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the assailant’s arrest on Wednesday afternoon, adding he is ‘currently being questioned by the Saudi authorities’. His identity, intention and motive have not yet been confirmed. 

Passengers and crew, including the captain Mr Machchhar, have been hailed for their bravery in preventing what is believed to be an attempted suicide mission. One of whom is said to have been an off-duty British pilot. 

Mr Machchhar was praised for saving the lives of those 174 passengers on board, which included four Americans. While cruising mid-air, the hero was able to fight off his co-pilot in the cockpit and his attempts to sabotage the plane’s systems.

Distressing footage showed Mr Machchhar lying on the ground covered in blood as passengers tended to his injuries, while another pilot is seen seemingly lying nearby unconscious. Passengers can be heard telling one of the men: ‘You saved the plane.’

Delhi’s embassy in Saudi Arabia has since confirmed Mr Machchhar is being treated in a hospital in Tabuk.

The incident was described as ‘an attempted jihadist terror attack’ by Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz, which was ‘thwarted only thanks to the heroism of several Israeli passengers’.

This includes one Israeli passenger, named by local media as Yaniv Hayun, who was called a ‘hero’ by Mr Netanyahu during a meeting as he arrived back in Tel Aviv. 

Mr Hayun, who was wearing a blood-soaked T-shirt, embraced the Israeli PM before describing how he broke down the cockpit door and wrestled the alleged terrorist before taking over control of the plane – the skills of which he credits to his watching of TV show Air Disasters, which investigates notable aviation crises. 

One passenger Almog Itali described how the plane became a ‘rollercoaster’ before it ‘dropped down like a massive G-force’ for around 30 seconds. 

Mr Itali credits the passengers who intercepted the believed hijack with his life, telling BBC Newsnight: ‘They are very brave, the literally saved our lives.’

Aviation experts have marvelled that the plane didn’t crash, as the flight plummeted from 33,000ft to 17,000ft (around 10,000 meters to 5,100 meters) in about a minute, before making an erratic circle close to the Jordanian border and landing in Tabuk about an hour later, according to Flightradar24, which identified the aircraft as a Boeing 737 Max 8. 

United Airlines pilot and aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said he was surprised that the plane was able to land safely after most of the rudder was ripped off the tail during the extreme descent.

‘That was a serious descent and strong aerodynamic forces on that rudder for that to happen. I’m just amazed the aircraft didn’t come apart,’ Mr Arroyo said.

Another aviation safety expert, Jeff Guzzetti, said that given the rate of descent, it may not have been possible for the plane to level out if it had fallen below 10,000ft.

‘It is remarkable they were able to pull out of that dive. What saved them is there was enough altitude left for them to recover,’ said Mr Guzzetti, who used to investigate crashes for the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration in the US.

Flydubai said in a statement it was suspending flights to and from Israel as it investigated Wednesday’s incident. 

READ MORE: Stabbed pilot is a true hero. He opened the cockpit door’: Netanyahu heaps praise on captain of Flydubai plane and passengers who overpowered attacker and averted 9/11-style disaster

A Long Island father of two was killed in what police believe was a targeted shooting at a North Bellport park, while a separate confrontation involving the victim’s friend prompted a lockdown at a nearby hospital.

Lonnie Booker, 43, was shot in the chest at Robert Rowley Park at approximately 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.

Booker was transported to NYU Langone-Suffolk in East Patchogue, located about three miles from the park. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said Booker appeared to know the shooter. Surveillance footage reportedly showed the suspect leaving the park in a red sedan.

“It appears that it is a targeted attack, and that the victim and perpetrator knew each other,” Catalina told ABC7NY.

No suspect has been arrested. Detectives with the Suffolk County Police Department’s Homicide Squad are urging anyone with information to come forward.

The turmoil continued at the hospital shortly after Booker arrived.

Police said Booker’s friend, Emmanuel Mayo, went to the hospital and became involved in a confrontation with an officer, according to Greater Long Island.

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Mayo, 37, allegedly pushed an officer as he attempted to enter the hospital and then resisted arrest, police said. Hospital employees and officers temporarily restricted visitors from entering the building until the situation was under control.

Mayo faces charges of second-degree harassment and resisting arrest.

Back at Robert Rowley Park, Booker’s loved ones and friends created a memorial and gathered to grieve.

“My cousin was an outstanding guy, and boom, he shouldn’t have died like that,” Earl Parker told ABC7NY.

The fatal shooting has also renewed questions about security at the park.

Just seven days before Booker was killed, police detained seven people for allegedly trespassing at the park after dark. Four were taken into custody on outstanding warrants, while three received field appearance tickets, Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico told Newsday.

Panico said Brookhaven has made significant investments in the park, including installing surveillance cameras after residents raised concerns about people lingering there after hours.

Catalina said Booker was the first person shot in the Fifth Precinct this year, while emphasizing that “one homicide victim is one too many” and “one shooting victim is one too many.”

The investigation into the North Bellport shooting remains ongoing, police said.

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Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, was still alive Wednesday night after receiving two lethal injections, according to her attorney.

Pike’s legal team said in a motion filed Wednesday night that the attempted execution had failed to kill the convicted Tennessee murderer and asked a court to stop the process.

At 8:26 p.m. local time, witnesses reported that execution officials had “injected both syringes of lethal injection chemicals” but that Pike remained alive and was snoring, her lawyers wrote in a federal court filing, according to The Associated Press.

Her attorneys said Pike “has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat.” They also reported that the curtains separating the execution chamber from witnesses “have gone down twice,” the AP said.

Officials appeared to administer two doses of pentobarbital, but Pike remained awake and continued snoring more than 40 minutes after the second dose, according to the AP.

At 8:53 p.m., officials escorted media witnesses from the area, The Associated Press reported. The Tennessee Department of Corrections said it could not immediately provide an account of what had occurred.

Emergency vehicles were seen arriving at and leaving the prison, according to the outlet.

The development came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a last-minute stay, temporarily clearing the way for Pike’s execution. If carried out, she would have become the first woman executed in Tennessee since the early 1800s.

The Supreme Court granted Tennessee’s request to vacate the stay issued Wednesday morning by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, allowing the state to proceed with Pike’s execution.

The Sixth Circuit had issued the stay “until further notice” in a 2-1 decision while considering motions from Pike’s attorneys and the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office.

Tennessee immediately appealed to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to lift the stay.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the Supreme Court’s ruling. Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined her dissent.

Sotomayor said the Sixth Circuit should have been allowed more time to review Pike’s pending legal challenge before the execution went forward.

“In capital cases, ‘[a]ppreciation of our own fallibility, and respect for the judgment of an appellate tribunal,’ demand caution before ‘acting irretrievably,’” Sotomayor wrote.

She added that the Supreme Court “chooses to overlook that principle precisely when it matters most.”

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Pike, 50, was 18 in 1995 when she, her boyfriend and another person beat, kicked and stabbed 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer to death in a brutal attack described as “satanic.” Pike said the killing lasted between 30 minutes and an hour, according to court documents.

Pike and Slemmer met through the Job Corps Center, a vocational program in Knoxville, according to court records.

Case records say Pike accused Slemmer of “trying to get [her] boyfriend” and “running her mouth.” The day before the killing, Pike told another classmate that she wanted to kill Slemmer because she “just felt mean that day,” the records state. She was carrying a box cutter and a meat cleaver.

Pike and her accomplices lured Slemmer out, telling her they wanted to go to a music store and pick up some marijuana they’d hidden in a park nearby.

Pike attacked her, knocked her to the ground and hit her in the face with her knee and foot, according to court documents.

At one point, Slemmer broke away from Pike and tried to flee, but Pike’s boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, grabbed her and held her down while Pike slashed her with the box cutter. The victim begged for her life, but the attackers kept going. At some point, they gagged her with a hair tie.

Shipp also carved pentagrams into the victim’s face and chest.

At trial, forensic psychiatrist Dr. William Bernet testified that the crime had “satanic elements” but also appeared to involve “the phenomenon of collective aggression, in which a group of people become emotionally aroused and ‘the end result is that they engage in some kind of violent, extremely violent activity,'” court records show.

Dr. Eric Engum testified that Pike had been diagnosed with “very severe borderline personality disorder” in addition to showing signs of cannabis dependence and depression. However, he said, she had no symptoms of brain damage or insanity.

Pike took a piece of the victim’s crushed skull as a trophy and later showed it off in school, recounting that Slemmer had begged the trio to stop, according to court records. Pike told the friend she’d cut Slemmer’s throat a half-dozen times and then smashed her head with a rock. She showed off her bloodstained sneakers to another classmate and brought Slemmer’s skull fragment to breakfast the next morning.

Neither Shipp nor the third attacker, Shadolla Peterson, received death sentences. Shipp was under 18 at the time and not eligible for capital punishment. Peterson testified for the state.

Pike’s supporters counter that her defense did a poor job presenting mitigating factors before her sentencing, including untreated bipolar disorder and PTSD stemming from repeated domestic violence and sexual assaults. Just under 25,000 people had signed a petition to Gov. Bill Lee asking him to commute her death sentence to life in prison.

After evading capture for more than four decades, a man has been sentenced to prison for the brutal 1978 murder of a teenage girl.

Mark Stanley Personette, 80, received a life sentence on Wednesday for killing 15-year-old Marissa Harvey nearly 50 years ago.

Harvey, who was from New York, had been visiting her older sister in San Francisco. She failed to return from a planned day trip to Golden Gate Park, where she intended to go horseback riding.

Surfers discovered her body the following day at nearby Sutro Heights Park. Prosecutors said she had been sexually assaulted, severely beaten and strangled with a ligature.

Personette was finally arrested for the crime in Denver, Colorado, in December 2021—43 years after Harvey’s murder.

Following the arrest, the San Francisco Police Department said detectives had pursued every available lead during the original investigation using the technology of the time. The case ultimately went cold.

Investigators reopened the case in 2021 after advanced DNA testing and investigative genealogy identified Personette as a suspect, prosecutors said.

Early DNA testing conducted in the 2000s found a male profile on Harvey’s sweater and jeans, along with a piece of dried gum stuck to her back. However, the testing could not link the evidence to a specific person.

Nearly two decades later, police turned to investigative genealogy, a forensic technique that compares DNA results with profiles in public genetic databases.

The method allows investigators to develop a detailed genetic profile and locate a suspect either directly or through relatives. It was first used successfully to capture the Golden State Killer in 2018.

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Using the technique, police identified Personette as a potential suspect in Harvey’s sexual assault and murder.

In 2021, FBI investigators watched Personette discard trash in a Walmart parking lot more than 15 miles from his home.

The items they recovered consisted only of personal hygiene products containing Personette’s DNA. Investigators later determined that he had been keeping hygiene-related waste separate from his other rubbish.

The new DNA samples were compared with evidence recovered from Harvey’s clothing and the gum found on her back, producing a match to the 1978 crime.

That evidence provided sufficient grounds for a warrant, leading to Personette’s arrest and eventual conviction.

Investigators also found a 1970s map of San Francisco and California license plates bearing a 1979 registration sticker at Personette’s home, despite his denial that he had ever visited the city.

During the trial, another woman testified that Personette raped her in a wooded area of New Jersey in 1979, when she was 16 years old.

At the time of Personette’s arrest, police said they believed he may have had more victims and urged law enforcement agencies across the country to review any unsolved sexual assault-related homicides involving young women.

The murderer’s sentencing was hailed by prosecutors in a statement released by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. 

‘After almost 50 years, Mr. Personette is finally being held accountable for his heinous crimes against Marissa and will spend the rest of his life in prison,’ said District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. 

‘While nothing can bring Marissa back to her family, today’s sentence hopefully leaves her family with a sense that justice was done for all that they have endured.’ 

An air ambulance helicopter crashed into the ocean near Catalina Island on Wednesday night, moments after departing Avalon. Emergency crews rushed to the area as reports indicated that five people were aboard.

ADS-B flight data showed the REACH helicopter lifted off at 7:46 p.m. and climbed to about 175 feet before beginning its descent.

According to Squawk, the aircraft’s signal was lost roughly eight seconds after takeoff.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department sent helicopters and dive teams to the area at approximately 7:50 p.m. after receiving reports that an aircraft had gone down near the island, CBS reported.

NBC reported that the crash occurred near Pebbly Beach.

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Boat crews rescued three people, while firefighters said two others were located by the U.S. Coast Guard. A Coast Guard MH-60 helicopter also joined the response.

No one had been taken to a hospital as of 8:40 p.m., according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Flight-tracking records showed that a Reach Air Medical Services helicopter departed Oceanside in San Diego County and arrived on Catalina Island at 7:04 p.m.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn addressed the incident in a statement: “I have been informed that a medevac helicopter leaving Catalina Island has crashed shortly after takeoff. LA County Fire, Sheriff, Coast Guard, and Avalon Fire are on the scene. Search and rescue operations are underway and I am praying for everyone who was on board.”