Flydubai captain recounts fending off co-pilot’s axe attack
Capt Smit Machchhar has described how he fought off a co-pilot armed with a cockpit crash axe aboard flydubai flight FZ1073, which was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv last month. Machchhar said he initially mistook the first blow for a serious structural failure, then freed himself from his seatbelt, shielded his head with his arm and reached for the control that opens the cockpit door while calling to colleagues for help. He lost consciousness during the struggle and was later interviewed from an Abu Dhabi hospital with his head and left arm bandaged.
The attack took place in Saudi airspace and sent the aircraft plunging 16,000ft, or about 4,900 metres, in 30 seconds. Machchhar recalled hearing the cockpit door open and a confrontation between a colleague and the attacker, while the aircraft’s steep descent made him doubt that he would survive. The co-pilot was eventually overpowered, and two other pilots travelling on board landed the plane safely in Saudi Arabia.
UAE public prosecutors said their investigation, launched on 1 October, found that the Omani suspect intended to carry out a suicide attack by crashing the airliner into Ben Gurion airport, in a plan inspired by the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US. He was subsequently transferred to the UAE, flydubai’s home country.
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