CBS News: Israel ready to shoot down hijacked FlyDubai passenger plane

The Israeli military attacked the FlyDubai aircraft as it approached the Israeli border, rapidly losing altitude. The military assumed that the crash of the aircraft with 150 Israeli citizens on board was a smaller disaster than if the hijacked plane crashed into Ben Gurion airport or skyscrapers in Tel Aviv. This is reported by CBS News, citing informed Israeli sources.

Israel has a protocol of action in situations similar to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States. When the FlyDubai aircraft began to lose altitude, the Israeli military tried to contact the pilots, but no one responded. Then the airspace of the country was closed and fighters were raised in the air with the order to destroy the aircraft if it approached the border. The order was withdrawn when the plane, which by then had been taken over by replacement pilots, turned towards Saudi Arabia.

According to CBS News sources, if this had not happened, the Israeli Air Force had to assess the situation in the cockpit and in the cabin of the aircraft from close range. According to the protocol, if the fact of the hijacking of the aircraft by terrorists is established, and the invaders do not announce their demands, the Minister of Defense contacts the Prime Minister of Israel. Only he can finally confirm the order to destroy the aircraft in such a situation.

Alena Miklashevskaya