Key takeaways:
- The Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia said Capt. Smit Machchhar was in stable condition at a hospital in Tabuk.
- The BBC cited flight-tracking data showing the aircraft descended more than 17,000 feet in less than two minutes; the available accounts do not establish the cause.
- The UAE investigation will examine the incident’s circumstances and motives, including any connection to terrorism, prior planning or outside direction.
A Flydubai captain stabbed by another pilot on a flight to Israel is in stable condition in Saudi Arabia after the aircraft diverted to Tabuk. The Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia said Capt. Smit Machchhar was being treated at a hospital there.
Flight FZ1073 was traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday when it made a rapid descent over Saudi Arabia. The plane dropped more than 17,000 feet in less than two minutes, about two and a half hours after takeoff, according to Flightradar24 data cited by the BBC. It later landed in Tabuk. The available accounts do not establish what caused the descent.
“We were so scared. We didn’t know what was going to happen,” Aviatar Alevi, a 17-year-old passenger, told NBC News after returning to Tel Aviv. He described people “screaming, running, panicking, blood.” Another passenger, Motti Cohen Or, said he heard a woman shout that someone was being stabbed in the cockpit before the aircraft dived.
Passenger Yaniv Hayun told reporters that he and three others helped subdue the attacking pilot. The group struggled to open the cockpit door, he said. “I grabbed the attacker, and choked him, pulled him out first,” Hayun said. “Thank God, we pulled it off. We really put our heads together and worked as a team.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on X that Machchhar had saved “the lives of 174 people.” Netanyahu also said the wounded captain managed to unlock the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to enter. He said the other pilot had apparently tried to crash the plane, but said the motive was unclear. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said preliminary information indicated an intended crash, without providing evidence, NBC News reported. Netanyahu said it was too early to determine whether the attack was targeted or had any Iranian connection, according to Al Jazeera.
Two senior U.S. law enforcement officials told NBC News that investigators identified the alleged attacker as being from Oman. Al Jazeera reported that his citizenship had not been officially confirmed and that he had been taken into Saudi custody but not charged. Saudi authorities have not released investigative findings.
The United Arab Emirates has ordered investigators to establish the incident’s circumstances, details and motives, and to examine whether it was connected to terrorism, prior planning or outside direction, Al Jazeera reported. How a pilot brought a weapon aboard remains unresolved. Israel says it will increase security checks on pilots flying into the country, according to Al Jazeera.
Machchhar joined Flydubai in 2022 after more than a decade at India’s SpiceJet. His LinkedIn profile lists more than 9,750 flying hours, the BBC reported. Philip Kean, CEO of the New Zealand school where Machchhar trained, told the BBC he remembered him as someone who would remain calm in a crisis. “We trained him for forced landing — not this kind of situation, which is very, very rare,” Kean said.
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