Praising flydubai’s Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his “courage and responsibility” in averting “a potential catastrophe”, the UAE Friday called the attack in the cockpit of the passenger aircraft headed to Tel Aviv from Dubai a “serious terrorist incident”.

Machchhar was airlifted to the UAE from Saudi Arabia where the plane had landed Wednesday. Seriously injured in the attack by the co-pilot, he is being treated in a hospital in Abu Dhabi.

Anwar Gargash, diplomatic advisor to the UAE President, said Machchhar “deserves the highest praise”. “In confronting a serious terrorist incident and a potential catastrophe, he embodied courage and responsibility,” Gargash said in a post in Arabic on X, according to Gulf News.

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“His professionalism and moral conviction in the darkest of circumstances make him a true hero.” Gargash also cautioned that vigilance was essential to confronting future possible acts of extremism and terrorism, and warned against promoting conspiracy theories about the attack.

The Associated Press said Israel will begin repatriation flights Friday to bring back passengers stranded in the UAE after commercial travel between the two countries was suspended in the wake of the attack.

Authorities in Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and beyond are grappling with the fallout from the incident on board the flydubai flight from Dubai.

According to the AP report, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his claim Friday that the co-pilot, identified by Israeli officials as an Omani citizen, had undergone “Islamist radical indoctrination” but provided no evidence to back the assertion.

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“We are now investigating whether he was sent, and whoever sent him will pay a very heavy price,” Netanyahu said in a video message.

US President Donald Trump told reporters that early information he has received suggests there are links between the attack and Tehran but did not elaborate.

Trump also said that if it is determined that Iranian agents were behind the attack, the United States will “hit them very hard.”

Israeli investigators are involved in the probe but the Emiratis are in the lead, the AP quoted an official speaking on the condition of anonymity.