The attack on flight FZ1073

On 30 September, a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv was over Saudi airspace when its co-pilot, a 29-year-old Omani national, attacked Captain Smit Machchhar in the cockpit with a crash axe, an item normally kept on board for emergencies. According to the captain's account in The National, the co-pilot had left the cockpit for the toilet about two hours into the flight and came back saying he wanted to pray. Shortly afterwards Machchhar checked the estimated landing time on the onboard computer, and then the first blow came. The Boeing 737 carried 172 passengers. Reports differ on how far the plane fell: The Guardian gives 16,000 feet (4,900 metres) in 30 seconds, while The Independent gives more than 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds. Two other pilots on board landed the aircraft in Saudi Arabia, after passengers and crew overpowered the attacker. The captain survived with serious injuries.

The captain's account

Speaking from a hospital bed in Abu Dhabi, with his head and left arm bandaged, Machchhar said that when the first blow landed he thought something had gone badly wrong with the aircraft's structure. He understood he was under attack only moments later, and tried to free himself from his seatbelt and block the blows. He reached for the cockpit door while shouting for his colleagues by name, and believes that was when he first lost consciousness. He recalled his thinking at that moment in these words:

“The next thought was I need to get help in here.”

He described the most frightening moment as the aircraft's nose steeply going down. Asked whether he expected to survive, he said:

“I was not very sure that I'll make it out alive from this. Did I give up? No.”

A disputed rescue account

An Israeli plumber has claimed that he forced his way into the cockpit, subdued the co-pilot and even helped fly the plane. He told Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he had grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold and dragged him out first. Machchhar said he was unaware of that role and was not able to confirm it.

“I don't know about the plumber story, to be very honest.”

The captain said his focus had been entirely on surviving, and that he remembered a senior crew member saying the captain was still at the controls. He thanked the crew and passengers who helped save his life and restrain the attacker, saying everyone involved had done their best in the situation.

Investigation and suspected plan

The UAE attorney general, Hamad al-Shamsi, said the co-pilot had planned to take control of the aircraft and crash it into the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, describing the plan as a suicide attack. The state news agency WAM reported his statement. The 29-year-old suspect apparently used two earlier flights to Tel Aviv to become familiar with the route. UAE public prosecutors said their criminal investigation, opened on 1 October, found that the plan was inspired by the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States. The suspect was transferred to the UAE, flydubai's home country. Most passengers on board were from Israel.