New Delhi:
Captain Smit Machchhar, the pilot who fought off an alleged attempt to seize control of a flydubai aircraft bound for Israel, has described to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the terrifying moments inside the cockpit when he realised that his co-pilot was attacking him. Machchhar, who was seriously injured in the incident, said the flight had begun normally and that he had been looking towards the front of the cockpit while his co-pilot prayed.
Then, after several minutes, he felt a heavy blow to the back of his head.
“It was a normal flight, and the co-pilot wanted to pray … which a lot of locals do pray … which is not out of the ordinary,” Machchhar told Netanyahu. “While he was praying, out of respect, I was looking at the front and not at the back, and suddenly, after about four-five minutes, there was a big blow to the back of my head.”
His first thought, he said, was that the aircraft itself had suffered catastrophic damage.
“My first thought was that there was catastrophic damage to the aircraft, that something is not right … but after that the blows kept coming, one after the other and that’s when I realised that it’s not the aircraft, it’s the other guy who is in the cockpit with me,” he added. “I did try and stop him, but because of his initial blows, my vision was almost like nothing, and I was completely blurred out.”
Then he realised that the aircraft was rapidly descending.
“And at that point, the next feeling I had was that the aircraft was sharply going down,” he said. “My memory is still in bits and pieces right now, but this is what I remember out of that time. “I did try and manage to open the door once, but I think he shut it back – closed. And at this point, I remember, I was lying down in the cockpit floor, and I felt the aircraft and the whooshing sound and people screaming.”
It was then, he said, that he realised he had one final opportunity to prevent the aircraft from going down.
“And as I was telling the Ambassador here, I had that one last fight left in me,” he said. “Call it personal or call it for people, I did it because if I didn’t do it, I was going to die, and that’s when I pushed against everything… I gave everything that I had and went for the door and opened the door. And thankfully, people were waiting to pounce back … took over control and the rest is what you know.”
The conversation with Netanyahu came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Machchhar by telephone on Friday and praised him for his actions. The prime minister had said a day earlier that Machchhar had shown “immense courage and unwavering resolve” in protecting the lives of others despite being seriously injured.
What Happened On flydubai Flight
Flydubai flight FZ1073 was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday when it transmitted emergency signals and made a sharp descent of more than 17,000ft. The aircraft had been flying at about 34,000ft before the descent. It was carrying 174 passengers, including 27 children. The Boeing 737-8 was eventually diverted to Prince Sultan Bin Abdel Aziz Airport in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Videos circulating on social media showed Machchhar covered in blood, wearing an oxygen mask and lying on his back in the aircraft’s galley. Netanyahu said an Israeli passenger had told him that the aircraft went into a spin and began descending.
According to Netanyahu’s account, the passenger and a member of the crew managed to break into the cockpit and overpowered the pilot who had carried out the stabbing while he was attempting to interfere with the aircraft’s systems. The cockpit struggle was described as a critical moment in preventing the aircraft from continuing its descent.
Machchhar, who is in his mid-30s, has subsequently been described as the “true hero” who helped save all 174 people on board. He has been flying for flydubai for more than four years and has more than 13 years of commercial aviation experience, with more than 9,500 flying hours. Before joining flydubai in June 2022 and moving to Dubai, he was based in India and spent more than a decade with SpiceJet, where he also worked as a Line Training Captain.
His brother is also a pilot with flydubai.
Machchhar is originally from Ghatkopar in Mumbai. Friends, former colleagues and neighbours described him as a good person and praised his actions during the incident.
Co-Pilot Identified
An Omani citizen, Hamam al-Hammami, has been identified in media reports as the co-pilot who attacked Machchhar and allegedly attempted to take control of the Dubai-Tel Aviv flight. His identity has not been officially confirmed.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter, that al-Hammami had previously been barred from flying in Oman over concerns about his radical ideological views. During Wednesday’s flight, he allegedly attacked Machchhar with a crash axe, an emergency tool normally kept in the cockpit. The motive for the attack remains unclear.
The UAE, which is leading the investigation, said on Saturday that its findings showed that the co-pilot had attempted to carry out a “terrorist act”. UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said the co-pilot had attacked the captain inside the flight deck with a crash axe and attempted to take control of the aircraft. He said investigators were continuing to establish the full circumstances surrounding the incident, including the motive and any possible links.
CNN also identified the alleged attacker as Hamam al-Hammami, citing two sources and an Israeli official. CNN reported that he was born in the UAE to an Omani father and Syrian mother and had spent several years in the UAE. A regional diplomat cited by CNN said al-Hammami had been removed from flight training because of concerns about his radical views and was subsequently given another role at Oman’s national airline. It was not immediately clear what checks were carried out before he was hired by flydubai. Media reports citing sources said he had worked for the airline for about eight months.
The BBC reported, citing Buckinghamshire New University, that al-Hammami had completed a three-year distance-learning course in aviation management at the British university and graduated in 2023. The university said he had not undertaken pilot training there.
