Good evening. We're getting right down to business here live at 5, all part of our great weekday lineup here on 790 KBC, including the John Phillips Show with Randy Wang from noon to 3. And now Dan Bonino back with us here with the Dan Bonino Report in the afternoon. It's great to be back with you live at 5 here. Motech on Money streaming live online worldwide at kbc.com and your on-demand Motech on Money podcast — kbc.com, Apple, iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, all of your favorite podcast platforms.
Big news day today, starting with that terrifying ordeal aboard a Fly Dubai flight today, which thanks to several heroic crew members and passengers, foiled a co-pilot's attempt to crash the jetliner while flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv, Israel. Most of the 174 passengers aboard the flight were Israeli nationals. All the passengers on that Fly Dubai flight reached Israel safely today following a harrowing struggle in the plane's cockpit, which began when authorities say the plane's co-pilot stabbed the pilot and sent the plane plunging nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds. Somehow the injured pilot was able to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to get in there and overpower the co-pilot and enable a second pair of Fly Dubai pilots aboard to land the jet safely in Saudi Arabia after a bloody struggle. More than 10 hours later, the passengers arrived at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport aboard another Fly Dubai jet to a hero's welcome, with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeting the flight. President Trump later praised the dramatic rescue aboard the flight, recounting how an Israeli plumber reportedly intervened as the aircraft plunged. This is what President Trump was told by Benjamin Netanyahu. The president credited the wounded captain with opening the cockpit door and described the plumber pulling the attacker from his seat before passengers restrained him. We'll get the latest on that story here in just a moment.
Stocks ended the day mixed as benchmark Treasury yields continue to tick higher. We'll get into the economy and the markets later this hour with economist Kevin Clouden at the Milken Institute, and also Daniel Ives, leading tech analyst, will be joining us live. But first, on our top story, joining us live now, veteran broadcast journalist Dan Raviv, network broadcast journalist for many years, Middle East expert and author of numerous books on the Israeli intelligence service, including Spies Against Armageddon and Every Spy a Prince. He's also host of the Mossad Files podcast. Dan Raviv, thank you very much for taking the call here this evening.
Absolutely, Frank. And what a day it is. But you know what? What do you want to know? Because for years we haven't heard about a plane hijacking in the Middle East. And this one was fascinating and luckily a happy ending.
Many miracles. And I know you've been following this since it happened. Take it from the top and give us your account of what happened aboard that flight.
Well, some of our listeners might be surprised that every day there are 10 round-trip flights from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Tel Aviv, Israel. Since those two countries, Israel and the UAE, established diplomatic relations six years ago, they've been quite friendly. And thousands of Israelis every week go to Dubai, often changing planes and transferring to go on to India, Thailand, Vietnam, other places in Asia. It's been very friendly and fine. Well, today, Fly Dubai, a small airline that does the Dubai to Tel Aviv route, was flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv, but over Saudi Arabia, an act of violence. Here's what the passengers felt. Suddenly, they went down. Down 15,000 feet. Three miles down. They were flying at about 35,000 and then went down to about 20,000 feet. We mean in less than a minute. It even damaged the aircraft, by the way. People were terrified. What's going on? And there were sounds of a struggle in the cockpit. And then the cockpit door opens and the pilot is barely standing in the opening and yelling and bleeding. He's bleeding. He's just been stabbed. He manages to tell some people in first class that the co-pilot had stabbed him. So in the cockpit, locked usually, right? Just two men, pilot, co-pilot. The co-pilot stabbed the pilot and then the plane, in their struggle, went way down. Apparently, the co-pilot wanted to crash the plane over Saudi Arabia, maybe in Israel. I mean, we still don't know. But this will remind you of 9/11, right? When brave American passengers fought back against the al-Qaeda hijackers and United Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania. Well, this time, remarkably, the plane didn't crash. A dozen or so of the Israeli passengers battled the co-pilot. One of them yanked him out of his chair and then threw him out of the cockpit. And according to that Israeli passenger, who never flew a plane, he had seen so many TV shows, including one specifically about air emergencies, that he sat in the co-pilot seat and pulled back on the stick, as it's called, kind of a steering wheel, and the plane went up. And then remarkably, there were two off-duty pilots who worked for Fly Dubai that were sitting, you know, with the passengers way back, way back, and they came into the cockpit and took over. There aren't always extra pilots. And so the plane managed to land in Saudi Arabia. The pilot very badly wounded by being stabbed by his colleague. The co-pilot, some kind of terrorist. It's still not known, at least not revealed by authorities. Was he just trying to commit suicide and bring down the plane? Or was he a terrorist who hates Israel? Was he protesting Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit to the United Arab Emirates this past Sunday? We still don't know the motive. What we do know is that the Israeli passengers were heroes. And later in the day, when another plane brought them from Saudi Arabia to Israel, they were greeted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself. And there's a great feeling in Israel about these heroes. Frank.
Dan, you're live with Dan Raviv with an excellent account of what happened today. And tell us more about the greeting there by the Israeli prime minister of the hero plumber who apparently was the one who went into the cockpit and was able to get that co-pilot who stabbed the pilot into a headlock. And Prime Minister Netanyahu declared him immediately a lion and declared him a hero upon his arrival back in Israel. Tell us more about that.
Yeah, I will mention that politically for Prime Minister Netanyahu, it just couldn't be better. He rushed to the airport to greet these people who miraculously, you know, are okay after this attempt to take over a plane and maybe crash it. So, you know, that's totally legitimate. You know, some people will say, well, there's the Israeli election coming up October 27th, so Netanyahu was campaigning, you know, by using these people. But, you know, it's totally natural. The leader of the country went to the airport, greeted them. But the one man that he hugged, that man had blood on his T-shirt. And the prime minister even said to him, as a former soldier, which Netanyahu is, a commando soldier many years ago, he said, 'That blood, that was his,' meaning the terrorist, the co-pilot. And the man said, 'Yeah, that's his, and I'm sorry that we actually weren't able to remove the last breath of life from him.' In other words, this passenger, reported to be a plumber, was very eloquent. Yaniv Haya is his name. And he said the man survived, but he won't recover for a long time. And so again, you're right. Threw the terrorist, the co-pilot, into a headlock and threw him back. And so Yaniv was the first guy in. Then other Israeli passengers helped restrain the co-pilot on the ground. The co-pilot was bleeding and in bad shape, by the way, beaten up by the passengers again. Shades of 9/11 and what we know happened on that United flight. This time it succeeded. And Netanyahu heard that. Netanyahu featured it. Later in the day, Netanyahu spoke with President Trump, and President Trump retold just about this whole story in the Oval Office, chatting with reporters and others. So, like, everyone's really impressed. This could have been so terrible. And by the way, Frank, if we find out that, oh, I don't know, Iran financed it or ordered this co-pilot to do it, that it had to do with Iran, right? It would be another stage in the war. But so far, at least publicly, we still don't know the motive.
Very, very serious. On the air live with Dan Raviv. And the Indian pilot who was stabbed is now hospitalized. Captain Smith Machar, I believe is the way you pronounce his name, praised for his extraordinary bravery by Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump, and indeed the entire world. There were just seconds, really, from disaster when the pilot was able to open the cockpit door, it seems, allowing the heroic passenger to subdue the co-pilot and let the others get in there and take control of the plane. They were just seconds away from death, and we probably would never have known what happened in there if the events hadn't unfolded as they did.
Yeah. One aviation official in Israel said perhaps six seconds later it would have been too late to save the plane. It might have crashed in Saudi Arabia, or the plane might have fallen apart. Right. The tail section was damaged by this intense speed and literally, you know, the force of gravity, the G's, caused damage there. Can you imagine, just like six seconds? And yet by coincidence, the Israeli passengers are able to overcome this terrorist co-pilot who suddenly stabbed his colleague, and other pilots could take over and bring the plane up. I mean, it's like really unbelievable. So, you know, it's an incredible story. But I do want to say again, I think there's a lot of potential political impact. There could be everything from the Israeli government deciding that an airline from the UAE like Fly Dubai may not be safe, or they have to require all foreign airlines to provide a lot of information about every pilot who flies every commercial airliner into Israel. Already, Israeli officials are saying they'd like to have that. And you know how it is with security, right? After an incident, that's when they think of all sorts of preventative measures, which of course reminds us, Frank, as a frequent traveler, you know, that the cockpit door has been hardened and strengthened in many ways since 9/11. We just had the 25th anniversary recently, of course, and on some of those planes, even the flight attendants would not be able to open that door. I saw one version on one airline where the flight attendant can actually click in, push buttons, you know, for a code to open the cockpit door. But on most airlines, I'm told that door won't open unless opened from the inside, for the safety, of course, of the plane. But what happens when the hijacker is inside the cockpit? So luckily, incredibly, the wounded — he's from India — the Fly Dubai captain, Smith Machar, was able to stand and open the door, and that's what allowed the Israeli passengers and then the two replacement pilots to go in and save the day.
Preventing a catastrophic midair disaster today. A lot of heroes involved here, and apparently these flights have been suspended for the time being, right? As the authorities there decide how to handle pilots, their identification and so forth. What other reaction are we seeing immediately in the face of this near catastrophe?
Okay. Well, let me deal with what you brought up because that's right. For now, those flights, and it's 10 round trips a day by this Dubai-based airline, are all cancelled. Many thousands of travelers, almost all Israelis, by the way. Hardly anybody from the United Arab Emirates visits Israel. But Israelis are always, and right now there's a Jewish holiday called Sukkot. And so Israelis are traveling abroad. Many thousands, tens of thousands. They'll be stuck in Dubai, nearby Abu Dhabi. Of course, I guess they'll probably spend some money and travel through some other city to get back home. Maybe the Israeli government will send some rescue planes. So, you know, there's some confusion and, of course, disruption. Disruption also to the frankly pleasant relations between several Arab countries and Israel since President Trump's Abraham Accords of the year 2020. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain get along really well with Israel, and this disrupts it. No question. Of course, it's what the terrorists would want. I think it's what Iran would want. I'm not saying Iran, you know, arranged this. It could be just one lone terrorist. It could even be one man who just wanted to commit suicide. We still don't know. But I bet you that the Saudi interrogators know. And I'm sure that even though Saudi Arabia and Israel officially don't have relations, that the Mossad, Israel's spy agency, and Saudi Arabia are cooperating on this. So I think the authorities will know whether any country or any terrorist group ordered this attack, and perhaps whether more attacks are planned by the bad guys.
Also on that flight, according to, I believe, the Jerusalem Post, mentioning an Israeli dentist on board that kept the pilot alive. Any other heroes that you'd like to mention here, Dan, that were aboard that flight, and anything else noteworthy that has not been mentioned yet?
Yeah, but you're right about the dentist, by the way, and I'm sure a lot of listeners could imagine that dentists even know something about bleeding. You can make all the jokes you want about bleeding gums, but there is still some medical-related training there. And this dentist, first he says to reporters in Israel that he took part in, well, frankly, in beating up the bad guy, the co-pilot, but in seeing that the pilot was bleeding badly from the stab wounds, and there were many, apparently the co-pilot kept stabbing his colleague, the dentist took some credit, said he applied pressure and stemmed the bleeding so that the pilot has survived, but he was badly injured. Other passengers did too. And Prime Minister Netanyahu said, by the way, that the women were heroic. Now, keep in mind that in Israel, almost everyone serves in the army. Men typically for three years, women typically for two years. They get certain skills. Some of them are able to fight. That's true. But also, they learn some discipline. So I heard some Israelis say, 'Oh, only Israelis would rise up against a hijacker and do this.' Oh, I don't know. Like I say, I credit the United Flight 93 passengers on 9/11, 25 years ago, and I can't speak for every nationality on Earth, but Israelis really are tough, and it was almost inevitable that Israelis would not just sit in their seats and take it when there's an apparent hijacking. And they fought back. No security people on board, by the way, Frank. No indication of air marshals, sky marshals, not Israelis, not United Arab Emirates. That may change once the flights resume.
Do we know anything more about the condition of the pilot who remains hospitalized?
No, just that it was severe. That's all that was told. Saudi Arabia has revealed very, very little. That's just sort of the nature of that country. And it's worth keeping in mind, even for Motech on Money, and I mean it, because the US, of course, has a lot of ties with Saudi Arabia, perhaps especially, and with neighboring Arab countries, when it comes to open information and the media telling you what's going on. Everyone just treads very lightly. Nobody wants to reveal anything. And it's like the Israeli media, which are more like our fast-paced US media. They were all over it in every possible way. So that's why we don't really know, you know, how the pilot's doing, the co-pilot, the bad guy, what did he tell interrogators? I imagine it'll come out, but if I dare guess, it may well come out through the Israeli media because they are so darned active in every way.
On the air live with Dan Raviv, and as you mentioned at the beginning, now an intense investigation to see if Iran might have been involved with this. In the meantime, the BBC and other news sources are reporting that it's now believed Iran played a part in the Royal Air Force base incident which resulted in five men being arrested and then bailed out under suspicious circumstances. Any updates on that situation and anything else in the bigger picture here?
Yeah, I mean, keep in mind it's an RAF, Royal Air Force base, but it's really there for the use of the United States. We could consider it a US military base in England. And maybe no surprise, you know, that terrorists again might try to attack such a base. I mean, there have been alerts at US bases in Europe. And what was reported, I mean, I'm sure your listeners know, you know, that five men were arrested and they were wearing masks reportedly according to a British witness, and they were in three vans. And so the suspicion was there might be explosives. Then the British police released the five men on bail, though publicly announcing the investigation is not over. They're out on bail. May surprise you considering what the British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said today, which is there is an Iran link to this. And as for the three vans near the US base, and some of those airplanes from there have taken part in attacks against Iranian targets, the vans didn't contain explosives. They did contain fuel. So kind of a mystery. Maybe another case where despite our general openness, the United States and the United Kingdom are not revealing everything they know. Though the prime minister, the new prime minister Burnham, did decide to accuse Iran. So a lot of countries, by the way, in Western Europe, I happen to be in Italy right now, a lot of countries are on alert for possible Iranian retaliation against the US and against Israel for the war that continues. So far, Iran apparently hasn't decided to turn on the terrorism, but instead has tried to control the Strait of Hormuz and hurt the US and the West through high oil prices. And on that, and I know you've covered it on your show, Frank, it is possible that the embargo that President Trump ordered to stop any ships from reaching Iran in or out, while escorting some oil vessels out of the Gulf, perhaps it's being effective. Iran may feel desperate, and that's why security officials say Iran might do something desperate. So there has to be an alert.
See you tonight, read about it tomorrow. But hear it now on Motech on Money, live on the air with Dan Raviv. Dan, thank you very much for that important update on this amazing story today. That is veteran network broadcast journalist and Middle East expert Dan Raviv, author of numerous books, by the way, on the Israeli intelligence service, including Spies Against Armageddon and Every Spy a Prince, host of the Mossad Files podcast. Dan, you're a prince for joining us live in the middle of the night in Europe with that excellent account of the big story of the day. Thank you very, very much for joining us live here this evening.
Great to be with you, Frank.
Thank you very much. And out to the freeways now on 790 KBC. Hey soccer fans, US Soccer's gold medal-winning women's national team faces World Cup champion Spain in an epic showdown at Audi Field in DC on October 10th. Don't miss this incredible match. Snag your tickets at ussoccer.com/tickets.
Big thank you to Dan Raviv for that report on what happened today on that Fly Dubai flight. The Dow coming in for a closing loss today of 444 points. The S&P 500 down 19, the Nasdaq up 63 points as tech names continue to do well. MU, Micron, out with earnings. We'll take a closer look at all of that coming up with the top tech analyst Daniel Ives from Yorkville Ives. He'll be joining us live in the next half hour. And on the economy, we'll be speaking shortly to economist Kevin Clouden, fellow at the Milken Institute. Oil right now in New York hovering just above $90 a barrel. Gold at 4,184. Bitcoin right now at 83,615, ETH at 26.86 and Doge at 9. Motech on Money continues here on 790 KBC. Big news impacting the business of show business today. A federal judge in the Bay Area has now approved the settlement that allows Paramount Skydance chief executive David Ellison to finalize the $111 billion acquisition of Warner Brothers Discovery. The federal judge today signed a settlement deal ending an antitrust lawsuit brought by the California Attorney General and 11 other state attorneys general who initially tried to fight the formation of this new entity, this merged giant. Now, the judge did not offer additional conditions to the deal that was announced last week between Paramount and the states, instead allowing Paramount's negotiated settlement terms to stand.
Joining us live now is economist Kevin Clouden, fellow at the Milken Institute, live with us here on the air. Kevin Clouden, thank you very much for taking the call.
My pleasure, Frank. Hope all is well with you.
Well, a lot to talk about today. Let's start with this mega merger deal which apparently will be finalized early next week, we understand, following the judge's signing off on this deal. Tell us about the importance of this.
Well, it's really significant in terms of creating some certainty about what happens next. Warner Brothers has been essentially up in the air for quite some time before the merger talks, not only with Paramount Skydance, but also even, of course, Netflix were happening. There was a previous announcement about spinning off chunks of the company. There were questions about which direction it was going to go in. There have obviously been a number of concerns about its financial stability for some time, essentially going all the way back to the Discovery merger, but certainly since the pandemic. So the hope is that this means that everybody involved knows what's going on with the management, they know what's going to happen in terms of the company, and even if there are huge remaining questions, the settlement does create some sort of template for people to at least feel like they know where the company is aiming and what they hope will be happening. And as part of this agreement that the judge signed off on today, it stipulates that Paramount will not sell or close its Melrose Avenue campus in Hollywood, Paramount Studios there, or the larger Warner Brothers lot in Burbank. I was just with the mayor of Burbank yesterday at the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley luncheon, and this is certainly big news there. The combined company now must instead operate these historic facilities, according to the order, in a manner consistent with past practices for at least five years.
Does that mean that things are going to stay the same, or might indeed there be layoffs or job reductions or whatever you want to call it? What's that going to look like?
Well, the job reductions are really going to be in the back office. You expect middle management. You expect that there will be some in terms of anything ranging from the website stuff to accountants to anybody where they feel like they can officially reduce headcount without triggering any kind of major disruptions. And the fact is that, you know, Warner Brothers and Paramount have already been some of the most aggressive companies in sending productions out of state or overseas. So some of the hollowing out has already happened. The question is, will, under the terms of this agreement, will it actually encourage the companies to bring more productions back in and to get the most what they can out of the real estate that they have in the sound stages, given the fact that they are a financial obligation?
You're live with economist Kevin Clouden, and I was speaking with the mayor of Burbank yesterday. We're talking about keeping Burbank in Burbank, just like they're talking about keeping Hollywood in Hollywood. I know you've done extensive conferences and studies on all of this. Where do things stand at the moment on the business of show business, largely eroding in recent years here in the Los Angeles area, and what's the outlook as far as you're concerned?
