FLYDUBAI FLIGHT–FZ1073
SARASIJ MAJUMDER
The Flydubai flight FZ1073 was diverted as it took off from Dubai to reach Tel Aviv through Jordanian airspace, prompting Israel to deploy warplanes, the Reuters news agency reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says one pilot on a Flydubai flight stabbed another pilot and apparently tried to crash the plane en route from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Israel’s Tel Aviv.
Footage taken on board the plane appears to show the injured pilot lying on the cabin floor with several stab wounds, and a passenger with a bloody head wound.
The leaders of Israel and India hailed pilot Captain Smith Machchhar as a hero for saving passengers after his colleague stabbed him.
Machchar was covered with blood, and crashed on the floor after he managed to click the release to open the Cockpit Door, and came out– that allowed other passengers and crew to overpower the copilot and enabled a second pair of Flydubai pilots on board to land the jet safely in Tabuk, a spokesperson for Netanyahu told Reuters.
“He saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals,” Netanyahu said in a post on X. “All passengers are out of harm’s way,” he had earlier said in a video statement released by his office.
At Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk airport, where the plane landed, officials said the plane’s captain and injured first officer were taken to hospital, after sustaining injuries, according to a statement from Tabuk airport, carried by Saudi state-run Al Ekhbariya TV.
India’s embassy in Saudi Arabia informed the injured captain as Indian national Smit Machchar. It said he was receiving treatment at a hospital in Tabuk and was reported to be in stable condition, adding that it was in contact with his family and Saudi authorities.
Netanyahu said he later spoke to one of the Israeli passengers who broke into the cockpit and overpowered one of the pilots who was reportedly trying to sabotage the aircraft’s systems.
Passenger Yitzhak Lieber, reportedly one of the men who overpowered the copilot, sent a video to his family from the plane, International Media Reported. In it, he says: “There is a pilot who was seriously injured. They’ve evacuated him. We overpowered the terrorist, and he is tied up.”
The mostly Israeli passengers were later flown to Tel Aviv on a replacement flight, Tabuk airport confirmed. They were received by Mr. Netanyahu, and relatives waiting at a safe enclosure.
“We’ll get to the root of this attacker, whether he had accomplices, whether Iran was behind it. I think we’ll find out very soon,” the Israeli PM said on Wednesday.
Israel’s Défense Minister Israel Katz said preliminary information indicated the attacker intended to crash the plane and kill everyone on board, calling the incident an “attempted jihadist terror attack”.
An Israeli official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity identified the attacker as an Omani national.
Timeline of events (GMT):
03:05 – Flight FZ1073 takes off from Dubai.
05:21 – The plane was cruising at 34,000 ft. Altitude fluctuations begin.
05:22 – Aircraft drops more than 14,000ft in less than 30 seconds.
05:31 – Signal from aircraft changes to 7700 (general emergency).
05:38 – Signal changes to 7500 (unlawful interference).
06:45 – Aircraft lands at Tabuk regional airport.
UAE’s Attorney General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi ordered an investigation into the incident on Thursday. According to his office, the investigation team would “collect information and evidence to determine the truth of the incident, its circumstances, details, and motives, and to verify the extent of its connection to any terrorist activity or purpose, or the existence of prior planning or direction for it”.
In a post on X early on Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded Machchar, calling him a “hero”.
I SALUTE THE INDIAN PILOT AND WISH HIS SPEEDY RECOVERY. BEFORE JOINING ‘FLYDUBAI’ HE WAS IN ‘SPICE JET’. INVESTIGATION SHALL BE COMPLETE, AND THE TERRORRIST GROUP BEHIND THIS MUST BE IDENTIFIED. 7th OCTOBER IS THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF THE HAMAS ATTACK, AND ELECTION OF ISRAEL IS ON 27/10.
ISRAEL MAY BE SAVED FROM ANOTHER 9/11 BY A WHISKER! MOST OF THE PASSENGERS WERE JEWS! DESTINATION WAS TEL-AVIV.
SOURCES:
- REUTERS
- ALJAZEERA
- Al Ekhbariya TV.
