New Delhi:
The flydubai flight reached Israel safely after a courageous passenger and crew foiled an Omani co-pilot’s alleged attempt to crash the aircraft. Many, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, have praised the Indian pilot of Flight FZ1073, Smit Machchhar, for his heroic courage, as he prevented the plane from crashing after his co-pilot stabbed him and allegedly tried to take control of the aircraft during a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
Despite his grave injuries, Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door and alerted the crew about his co-pilot’s horrific mid-air attempt to crash the plane carrying 174 passengers, including 27 children and six crew members. He is recovering in a hospital in Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk, where his flight was diverted after he issued an emergency signal.
But Machchhar is just one of several people called heroes for managing to wrest control of the plane from the attacker without caring about their own lives, according to Israeli officials, who also provided much of the detail on how events played out inside the steeply descending plane.
According to Israel’s Ynet news, four Israeli citizens rushed to the cockpit and helped the crew in taking down the attacker before the two off-roster pilots took control of the plane and landed it at a small airport in the kingdom. Among them was Yaniv Hayun, who reportedly choked the suspected co-pilot and later pulled back on the aircraft’s controls.
Two others, Assaf Rajuan and Zvika Manes, also helped the crew members overpower and restrain the suspected attacker. Then, there was Dentist Shota Musaev, who treated the badly wounded Machchhar, stopping his bleeding in time.
The four Israelis discussed the chaos aboard the rapidly plunging aircraft after the Omani co-pilot allegedly attacked the Indian pilot, apparently using a crash axe found in the cockpit.
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Yaniv Hayun
A video shared by the Israeli PM’s office showed Netanyahu at Tel Aviv airport meeting Hayun, a plumber by profession, after he landed in Israel with his shirt stained with blood but said he had not been injured.
During his conversation with Netanyahu, Hayun recalled entering the cockpit to remove the suspected attacker away from the controls before assisting with the aircraft’s trajectory.
Hayun said the cockpit door was not locked when passengers reached it, and he believed the Indian pilot might have opened it beforehand. “My conclusion is that he managed to open it for us before he collapsed, with tremendous presence of mind.”
“When I went in, I saw the terrorist on the controls, between the two seats. There were no pilots in the seats,” he said, explaining that he grabbed the co-pilot and dragged him out.
When questioned about the attacker’s actions, Hayun stated, “He was trying to destroy the controls in order to disable the plane.”
Utilising skills picked up from television, Hayun pulled back on the yoke to level the aircraft, saying, “I watch Mayday.”
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Assaf Rajuan
Assaf Rajuan, an insurance agency owner, told Ynet that he was returning from a vacation in Thailand when the flight turned into what he called a “horror movie.”
“We heard screams from near the restroom. A girl’s mother came out screaming, and we understood something had happened to the plane. It lost control, went down at a 90-degree angle, and we understood there was no control over the aircraft and something had happened,” he said.
Rajuan was among those who helped overpower the co-pilot. He said the cockpit door was open, and the passengers started “seeing the cockpit fill with blood”.
“People went in. There was a guy who got there before me named Zvika Manes. I went in with two other guys, and we tried to overpower the attacker, and we succeeded,” he said.
“We also had help from some of the crew. We managed to keep the attacker neutralised for 50 minutes and land in Saudi Arabia,” he added.
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Zvika Manes
Zvika Manes, who is the CEO of Bank Leumi’s underwriting company, was also among the passengers who were first responders as the chaos unfolded. He said he helped restrain the attacker using cables from the multimedia headphones distributed on the flight.
“There was a lot of blood. The plane plunged rapidly like you see in horror movies. There were screams. It was a very difficult event until the pilot stabilised the plane,” Manes recalled.
The banker said the suspected attacker was “really trying to fly the aircraft toward the ground, and people were thrown around and screaming.”
“We later tied him up and neutralised him. It took quite a bit of physical force. He was a strong man, probably full of adrenaline,” Manes said.
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Shota Musaev
Dentist Shota Musaev told ynet that he initially rushed towards the cockpit to help fight the suspected attacker. After the man was restrained, the dentist, who was reportedly the only doctor on the flight, turned his attention to the badly wounded captain.
He called that Machchhar “in very bad shape, with heavy bleeding from his head and hands.”
“I was the only doctor on the plane. I managed to stop the bleeding, and the pilot was fairly stable until shortly before landing, when his condition deteriorated somewhat,” he said.
Shota told CNN that the pilot was covered in cuts. “His head and his hands were practically sliced open, almost severed in two,” Mosaev said.
“He was in serious condition, not critical perhaps, but serious because of the blood loss.”
The dentist also recalled that the injured pilot remained conscious and communicated with them while lying in his pool of blood on the floor.
Video footage on social media showed two men on the plane’s floor, bloodied and wounded.
