How ‘Israel’s 9/11’ was averted after midair stabbing as co-pilot’s motive remains a mystery
When the first reports about a diverted flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv came through on Wednesday, it appeared to have been caused by a tussle between two pilots.
Early claims even suggested one was Russian and the other Ukrainian.
But, in the age of social media, the true chaos aboard the FlyDubai Flight FZ1073 quickly came to light. Footage and images sent from the plane by blood-covered passengers showed them overpowering the co-pilot, who it later emerged was an Omani national.
The plane, a Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, was carrying over 170 people from Dubai to Tel Aviv when it plunged more than 17,000ft in two minutes as the fight broke out. An emergency alert was sent out and the plane changed course towards Jordan, eventually landing in Saudi Arabia.
Aviation experts told the BBC that the rapid descent led to damage pictured on the plane’s rudder adding that the incident could easily have led to the plane breaking up in mid-air.
Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, was identified as the victim of the attack, while his arrested co-pilot was identified as Hamam al-Hammami on Saturday by sources cited in CNN.
The motive for the incident is still being determined but Netanyahu’s administration suggested early on that it was a suspected terror attack.
A six-year-old on her way to the toilet accompanied by her mother, was the first to raise the alarm when the pair heard shouting coming from the cockpit, prompting cabin crew to rush to the scene. What they saw was a blood-spattered scene.
“There was blood all over the cockpit and very, very sharp fighting moves,” Nina Manes’ mother, Tali Manes told Israel’s Channel 12.
“I screamed, ‘He’s stabbing the pilot, he’s stabbing the pilot, come help!’ People looked at me and didn’t understand.”
Her husband Tzvika Manes said: “The shrieks of my daughters when the plane nose-dived [are still with me]. They said, ‘Dad we don’t want to die.’ [Their cries] were the triggers that caused me to run inside the cockpit.”
One passenger recorded the ordeal on his phone and later shared the footage to social media. With blood dripping down his face, he declared that the passengers had “subdued the terrorists”. “Whoever is hearing me, we need help,” he added.
On Saturday, UAE prosecutors said Cpt Machchhar had been attacked by a “crash axe”, a tool kept in the cockpit in case of emergencies, bypassing stringent security protocols.
Yaniv Hayun, a 50-year-old owner of a sewage plumbing company, was travelling with his wife and two daughters when the incident took place.
