Abu Dhabi: Captain Smit Machchhar has given a harrowing first-person account of the mid-air assault aboard flydubai flight FZ1073, recounting how he fought to keep control of the aircraft after his co-pilot turned on him in the cockpit.
Speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone on Saturday, the Indian pilot said the co-pilot had been praying before the attack began, and that he had looked away deliberately out of respect. Moments later, he felt a heavy blow to the back of his head.
“I thought something had happened to the aircraft,” Machchhar told Netanyahu, according to an account of the conversation. But as the strikes continued, he said he understood the threat was coming from inside the cockpit.
“That’s when I realised that it’s not the aircraft, it’s the other guy who is in the cockpit with me,” he said.
Machchhar said he ended up on the cockpit floor and realised the aircraft was descending, his description suggesting he was badly disoriented and struggling to see clearly as he tried to make sense of what was happening.
He said he knew the cockpit door was nearby and, despite his injuries, managed to reach and open it. People outside then entered the cockpit and helped restrain the co-pilot, according to Machchhar’s account, as reported by The New Indian Express.
“I had that one last fight left in me,” he said. “I did it because if I didn’t do it, I was going to die.”
A day earlier, in a video call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi from his hospital bed in Abu Dhabi, Machchhar described being injured, realising the aircraft was going down and eventually opening the cockpit door so that others could intervene.
UAE Calls It Attempted ‘Terrorist Act’
The incident unfolded on September 30 aboard FZ1073, a flydubai service from Dubai to Tel Aviv carrying 174 people, according to some reports, though other accounts put the total on board at 182.
The Boeing 737-8 made an emergency diversion to Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Airport in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, after the attack.
Flight-tracking data cited by Reuters showed the aircraft losing about 16,625 feet in just over 30 seconds while over Saudi airspace. The aircraft’s transponder first sent a general emergency code (7700) before switching to code 7500, indicating unlawful interference or hijacking.
The UAE has since offered its own version of events. Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said an investigation had found that the co-pilot attacked Machchhar with a crash axe and attempted to seize the aircraft’s flight controls. The UAE described the episode as an attempted “terrorist act”.
However, the investigation is still continuing, with authorities examining the circumstances, the motive and whether there were any links to others. The UAE has also said technical examinations and analysis of physical and digital evidence are ongoing.
The co-pilot has been identified by several media reports as Omani national Hamam al-Hammami, though UAE authorities have not publicly confirmed his identity.
There have also been reports about his previous aviation career, including claims he had been barred from flying in Oman over concerns about his ideological views, but those assertions have not been established by the UAE investigation and should not be treated as confirmed findings.
Machchhar is recovering in the UAE. The Indian Embassy said on Saturday that he was receiving medical care and was “recovering well”.
