Flydubai captain reveals how he fought off colleague with axe

Flydubai captain Smith Macchhar described how the co-pilot struck him several times with an axe and directed the plane down to the Arabian desert. He said this in an interview with the newspaper The National, while in the hospital room.

The plane was heading from Dubai to Tel Aviv. According to Machkhar, the co-pilot sat next to him for two hours and did not reveal his intention. Suddenly, he began to strike, and the plane lost 17,000 feet of altitude in less than a minute. “I tried to block the strikes as much as I could. I shouted for colleagues. I fell face down, Machhar said.

According to the captain of the ship, at first he thought that the first blow to the head was caused by a fallen piece of equipment, but then new blows followed.

When I was hit for the first time... I thought something was wrong with the design of the plane and some detail fell on my head. I almost fell on the helm. After a couple of seconds, as the strikes continued, I realized that [I was being hit] by another person — someone I considered a member of my team.

According to Macchhar, the first thing he tried to do was to get rid of the seatbelts and, as far as possible, to block the blows that were inflicted on his head. “When the first blows followed, my vision . . . narrowed so much that I could hardly see anything. I only saw the shape of the objects, he said.

The flydubai captain said he did not clearly remember the sequence of events or how much time passed between them. However, after several attempts, he said he managed to open the cockpit door despite blood loss and unconsciousness.

According to him, he came to his senses when the attacker directed the plane in a peak. At the same time, crew members and passengers began knocking on the other side of the cabin.

“The scariest thing was what I heard and felt: the engines started to slow down. I mean, the sound of the engines has changed, from operating at full power to a level you wouldn’t expect at this stage of the flight. And I felt the plane going down. <...> At that moment, I knew I would not survive. I was always looking for the door. I tried to get to her. I pushed her... The next thing I remember is I was lying face down and thank goodness the cabin door was open.

According to the dentist Shota Musayev, who was among the passengers and assisted the victim, Machkhar "had severe bleeding head and left arm.".

“He had very deep cuts and we needed a lot of ice packs. But every time I lifted my T-shirt to check the bleeding, the blood started to go harder. So I didn't press my wounds too hard and I applied ice. For 45 minutes I kept the pressure on the wounds, he said.

The incident occurred on the morning of September 30 on flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv. There were 174 passengers on board, including 27 children. The plane transmitted alarms, changed its route and landed in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

On October 3, UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said the investigation revealed an attempt by the co-pilot to carry out a terrorist operation. According to him, al-Hammami attacked the commander in the cockpit with an emergency axe and tried to seize control of the aircraft.

Following the incident, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed to check the safety of foreign civil aviation flying into the country, the prime minister's office said. The head of the National Security Council, Shmuel Ben-Ezra, has been instructed to appoint an inspector to conduct the inspection.

In an interview with Fox News, Netanyahu said Israel could take part in the investigation. “We will be monitoring the investigation and possibly also taking part in it,” he said in early October.

Israeli Ambassador to Russia Oded Yosef in an interview with RBC Radio on October 1 named three alleged targets of the attack: to attack Israelis, undermine the spirit of the “Abraham Accords” and endanger the safety of civil aviation. He stressed that Israel trusts the capabilities of the Emirati authorities and the seriousness of their approach to the investigation.