Trump suggests FlyDubai co-pilot is linked to Iran, "based on what I'm hearing"

Washington — President Trump on Thursday suggested the FlyDubai co-pilot who allegedly tried to crash a passenger plane en route to Israel is linked to Iran, "based on what I'm hearing," but did not provide further details.

The U.S. president went further than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said it's "too early to say" if Iran was involved when a FlyDubai co-pilot allegedly stabbed his captain and attempted to crash the passenger aircraft on its approach to Tel Aviv from Dubai. The captain was able to unlock the cockpit door, and passengers overpowered and subdued the co-pilot before off-duty pilots made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. 

"We're working on it right now," Mr. Trump said Thursday on the White House South Lawn when a reporter asked if the co-pilot is linked to Iran. "They're being very open with us. I would say the answer, based on what I'm hearing, is yes. But we're working on it right now."

Mr. Trump was also asked if the co-pilot was possibly placed there by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or radicalized some other way. "Could've been, yeah," Mr. Trump replied. 

Netanyahu told CBS News on Wednesday that the co-pilot's motives are still unknown. 

"I don't think it was a hijacking," Netanyahu told "CBS Evening News" anchor Tony Dokoupil, adding, "I think it looks like a suicide attempt." 

Netanyahu told CBS News the co-pilot is being interrogated in Saudi Arabia. 

Netanyahu told Fox News that Israel knew the co-pilot had undergone "Islamist radical indoctrination." If Iran is behind the thwarted attack, Mr. Trump said the U.S. will retaliate. 

"Oh, they'll be hit very hard," Mr. Trump said. "Don't worry. You just ask them — they know what happens. They'll be hit very hard."

The co-pilot in question has not yet been publicly identified. An Omani official told CBS News the attacker was born in Oman and currently holds Omani citizenship, although the Omani government has not publicly confirmed his nationality.

contributed to this report.