Israelis foil hijacking

last updated 8 January 2015

Istanbul

Israeli air marshals tackled and subdued an Arab man wielding a penknife who tried to hijack an El Al flight bound for Istanbul this week. The flight landed safely. The suspect, Israeli Arab Tawfik Fukra, told Turkish police that he was inspired by the 9/11 hijackers and wanted to crash the plane into a tall building in Tel Aviv. He meant to commandeer the jet shortly after takeoff, but couldn’t work up the courage to act until it had almost reached Istanbul. Fukra, who has no affiliation with any militant group, had no flight training and would have almost certainly failed to steer the jet back to Israel. The mystery is how he managed to smuggle a knife through what is considered the world’s tightest security.