New footage from a FlyDubai flight shows the moment passengers realised the aircraft was without anyone at the controls after the co-pilot allegedly attacked the captain in the cockpit.
Flight FZ1073, travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv, was at 34,000ft when the incident erupted. Captain Smit Machchhar was stabbed during a struggle over control of the Boeing 737, while 174 passengers were on board.
In the recording, filmed from a seat near the cockpit, passengers can be heard shouting: “Is there a doctor? We need a pilot!” Others yell “take him out” and repeatedly tell people to “sit down”.
One passenger says the co-pilot “tried to crash the plane”, while another asks in Hebrew whether there is an additional pilot on board. A voice responds that there is.
The aircraft reportedly plunged 14,125ft in 29 seconds around the time of the confrontation, according to Flightradar24. Yaniv Hayun, a plumber travelling on the flight, helped force his way into the cockpit and subdue the co-pilot.
The captain was also able to open the cockpit door sufficiently for passengers and two relief FlyDubai pilots to enter. The second pair of pilots then took control and landed the aircraft at Tabuk Regional Airport in Saudi Arabia.
Passengers describe cockpit struggle
Dr Shota Musaev, a 47-year-old Israeli dentist, was among those who rushed forward. He said the plane first appeared to drop sharply, leading passengers to think they were experiencing turbulence, before shouts and a woman crying “Knife! Knife!” came from the front.
“That was when I got up. I realised it was a terrorist attack and joined the people ahead of us, who were the first to rush into the cockpit and pull the terrorist out,” he said.
Dr Musaev said four men dragged the attacker from the cockpit and tied his hands and feet. The man, he said, pleaded: “Kill me”.
The dentist then helped treat Captain Machchhar, who had suffered severe injuries to his head, neck and arm. “The pilot was losing a lot of blood,” he said. “Everything in the cockpit was covered in blood, but he was conscious.”
With little first-aid equipment available, passengers used pieces of cloth to stem the bleeding. Dr Musaev said the captain told him: “Save me. I don’t want to die here.”
Further footage showed the restrained co-pilot sitting on the floor while the injured captain was taken from the aircraft.
A six-year-old passenger, Nina Manes, and her mother had been near the lavatory shortly before the attack. Nina said she heard suspicious noises from the cockpit and saw blood inside.
“I screamed: ‘He is stabbing the pilot, he is stabbing the pilot, come help!’ People looked at me and didn’t understand,” she told Israel’s Channel 12.
When the plane began to dive, Nina’s father, Tzvika, ran towards the cockpit with two other passengers after hearing his wife and daughter cry: “Dad, we don’t want to die.”
Captain Machchhar has been praised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mr Netanyahu said the captain had been stabbed in the head and that his arm had been “split in two”.
Investigation into co-pilot’s motives
The co-pilot, identified by Israeli officials as an Omani national, was initially questioned in Saudi Arabia and later left for the United Arab Emirates after receiving medical treatment.
The UAE has opened an investigation into the circumstances and motives behind the incident, including whether it was linked to terrorist activity, involved prior planning or had been directed by others.
Mr Netanyahu said the co-pilot appeared to have been radicalised and may have intended to bring down the aircraft, but stressed that no final conclusions had been reached. Israeli officials said the investigation was continuing and that the co-pilot was believed to have been acting alone.
Israel’s envoy to the UAE, Yossi Shelley, said it was too early to draw conclusions. Israeli officials also said there was no evidence so far of Iranian involvement.
Saudi Arabia said the captain and co-pilot had both been treated in hospital and had left for Abu Dhabi after receiving medical clearance.
