A Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing at Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia on September 30 after the aircraft’s captain, Smit Machchhar, an Indian pilot, was stabbed in the cockpit. The flight, FZ1073, was a Boeing 737 Max 8 carrying 174 people.
Israeli officials characterised the incident as an attempt to bring down the aircraft. Flydubai described it as an ‘altercation in the cockpit’. A co-pilot is reported to have stabbed the captain.
Captain Machchhar was seriously wounded. He was able to open the cockpit door, which allowed passengers and crew outside to overpower the attacker. A passenger also entered the cockpit and pulled back on the controls.
The aircraft descended from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet in about a minute before it landed at Tabuk. India’s embassy said the captain was admitted to hospital in Tabuk and was in stable condition.
Saudi authorities arrested the alleged attacker. His identity and motive have not been established, and he has not been named in this report.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Captain Machchhar ‘a true hero’ for preventing what he described as a catastrophic mid-air disaster. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the captain’s courage, composure and calm saved many lives.
Flydubai has suspended flights to and from Israel pending an investigation. Israel has announced that it will vet all pilots entering the country.
Flydubai is a Dubai-based airline. The Boeing 737 Max 8 is a single-aisle passenger jet, and Tabuk, where the flight landed, is a city in northwestern Saudi Arabia. Prime Minister Modi conveyed his message directly to the captain.
The details in this report are based on accounts from Al Jazeera, CNN and other news outlets and on statements by officials, and the investigation is continuing. The image used here shows a Flydubai Boeing 737 Max 8 for illustration and is not the aircraft involved in the incident.
Flydubai Boeing 737-8 MAX (representative image, not the aircraft involved), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
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