Tel Aviv [Israel], October 1 (ANI): Former Israeli government spokesperson Elon Levy on Thursday praised Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar, who was seriously injured during the mid-air cockpit attack aboard an Israel-bound Flydubai flight, saying his action in opening the cockpit door prevented a potentially larger tragedy.”First of all, I want to wish the captain a full and speedy recovery. That’s the most important thing. Without him, we would have had a mass casualty terror attack, no doubt,” Levy said while speaking to ANI from Tel Aviv.”If the brave captain, having been stabbed, had not opened that door to let the passengers into the cockpit, there would have been nothing to stop the terrorist co-pilot from taking control of the plane and crashing it into the desert, into a building, killing everyone on board and possibly more. His courage, when he was injured in that moment, saved untold lives,” Levy said.”And I think it’s a really inspiring story, an inspiring story of how one brave captain who absolutely was not prepared for this situation risked his life to save the plane, how passengers who had no aviation experience were able to jump into action. And a story of how Indians and Israelis, when we work together, well, not to play too hard on the airline puns, but the sky’s the limit,” he added.Furthermore, Levy believes the mid-air cockpit incident was an attempted terror attack and could have turned into “Israel’s 9/11″ had it not been for the courage of Indian Captain Smit Machchhar and the passengers who intervened.Levy said the co-pilot, an Omani national, stabbed Machchhar over Saudi Arabia and attempted to take control of the aircraft.”Israel believes this was an attempted terror attack and could well have been Israel’s 9/11, if not for the heroism of the Indian captain who, with his last gust, managed to open the door to the cockpit and let the passengers come in to save the flight,” Levy said.”Here’s what we know happened. The co-pilot, a national of Oman, stabbed the captain, the Indian captain, over the skies of Saudi Arabia and tried to take control of the cockpit. During that tussle, the brave Indian captain opened the door so that passengers could come in. The passengers who had no flight experience went inside, tackled the pilot, an Israeli plumber who had watched plane crashes on Mayday Air Crash series, managed to grab the steering wheel of the plane in order to force it out of the nose dive, and the other passengers restrained the terrorist pilot with earphones until an off-duty pilot on the plane was able to take control and eventually land it safely in Saudi Arabia,” he said.Levy said the incident raised concerns beyond a conventional hijacking because of the possibility that the aircraft could have been used as a weapon.”There have been many hijackings of aircraft in the past before. This is the first I know of a pilot who didn’t just try to crash the plane like with the Malaysia aircraft, but planned to use it as a weapon for a possible 9/11 style attack, which was prevented, as I said, because of the courage of the Indian co-pilot and those passengers on board,” he said.When asked what evidence supported Israel’s assessment of a possible terror attack, Levy said investigators were examining the alleged attacker’s background, conduct and possible motives.”People don’t just hijack planes full of Israelis for fun. Unfortunately, Israel has a lot of experience, especially in the 1970s from Palestinian terror attacks that involved hijacking planes,” he said.Levy said sources cited by Israeli media had described the alleged attacker as an Omani national who had exhibited “unusual and extreme religious behavior”, while cautioning that this did not by itself establish a jihadist motive.”Now, obviously that doesn’t mean that he was a jihadist, but it certainly helps to connect the dots,” he said.He outlined three possible scenarios investigators would need to examine if the attacker had succeeded in taking control of the aircraft — crashing it in Saudi Arabia, forcing it to land in a hostile country such as Iran or Yemen, or entering Israeli airspace and using the aircraft in a 9/11-style attack.”At the moment, Israel has the eyewitness statements from the passengers who fought with the terrorist on board, but he is now in the custody of Saudi authorities, and Israel is following the investigation closely and wants to participate in that investigation so we can learn lessons and make sure that nothing like this, a rogue pilot, ever threatens global aviation ever again,” Levy said.He said the investigation would also have to establish the alleged attacker’s motive, whether he acted alone and whether he had links to a broader network.”Since 9/11 especially, global aviation has tightened security, but there is one choke point. What if the pilot himself wants to bring down the plane? That is a question that is still unanswered at a global level,” Levy said.”In this case, the questions are: what were the pilot’s motives? Was he indeed trying to carry out a Jihadist terror attack, and what was the target? Was he acting alone? Was he a lone wolf or was he part of a broader network?” he added.Levy said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been asked on Fox News whether Iran was involved and had said it was “too early to tell”.He also raised questions over how the alleged attacker obtained a weapon, why an Omani pilot was allowed to fly to Israel despite the absence of diplomatic relations between Oman and Israel, and what background checks had been conducted.”How did he manage to get a weapon on board despite airline security that’s meant to apply to the pilots themselves? Why was an Omani pilot allowed to fly to Israel, even though there are no diplomatic relations with Oman, and I understand assurances had been given that, um, nationals of such countries would not be allowed to fly planes to Israel,” he said.”And what sort of background checks, if any, had been carried out on the pilot? We’re now going to see global airlines needing to look into how they evaluate their pilots. Are they going to step up background checks? Were the background checks not carried out in this case?” Levy added.He said the incident could prompt airlines and countries around the world to review aviation security protocols.”Airline security is always tightened after every attempted hijacking and every attempted attack. The modern airline industry as we know it was shaped by the lessons of 9/11, and here there will be lessons learned, I’m sure, at a global level because if a pilot can try to take control of a plane heading to Israel, he can do it on any airline around the world,” Levy said.”So I’m sure Israel will be drawing its own lessons and will want to share those security lessons with other countries that will also want to tighten their own airline security,” he added.Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday praised Machchhar for his “remarkable patience, presence of mind, and courage”, saying his actions helped avert a 9/11-style tragedy.”In the incident that occurred yesterday, Captain Smit of India demonstrated remarkable patience, presence of mind, and courage; indeed, as the Prime Minister of Israel stated today, an Indian prevented a 9/11-style tragedy. For every citizen of our country, Smit’s valor fills us with immense pride,” Modi said while addressing the centenary celebrations of the Union Public Service Commission in New Delhi.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also praised Machchhar’s “unbelievable courage”, saying the Indian pilot and passengers helped prevent what could have been “another 9/11″.In an interview with Fox News, Netanyahu said Machchhar was badly wounded and bleeding but managed to unlock the cockpit door as the aircraft went into a nosedive, allowing passengers and reserve crew members to intervene.”An amazing act of heroism of his, of the Indian pilot, of the people who helped them. They stopped a disaster that could have been global,” Netanyahu said.Netanyahu also said the attacker was being investigated in Saudi Arabia and could be taken to the UAE, adding that Israel would follow the investigation and could potentially participate in it.On Iran’s possible involvement, Netanyahu said, “It’s too early to say”, adding that investigators would have to determine whether the attacker had accomplices and whether Iran was behind the incident.The Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv was diverted to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, following the cockpit incident. Flydubai has temporarily suspended flights to and from Israel while the investigation is underway.Captain Machchhar has more than 13 years of commercial aviation experience and around 9,750 flying hours, predominantly on Boeing 737 aircraft. Before joining Flydubai, he spent 11 years with SpiceJet, where he served as a Line Training Captain. 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