A Brit helped save a flight bound for Israel from plunging to the ground after one pilot allegedly stabbed his colleague in a suspected hijacking attempt, a passenger said.
Passengers and crew on the Flydubai jet managed to tie up and stop the alleged attacker from what they believe was his attempted suicide mission in crashing the plane. They then grappled to regain control of the plane – which had dropped from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet (10,000m to 5,100m) in around a minute.
It has since emerged one of those heroes who saved the plane, and the lives of those onboard, was a British off-duty pilot.
One passenger Amol Itali told the BBC: ‘There were two pilots in the front, one stabbed the other, and there were two spare pilots who were supposed to operate the next flight.
‘The relief pilots are European, one of them British, who entered [the cockpit] and pulled the aircraft up, pulled the yoke, stabilised the plane and landed us in Saudi Arabia.’
The victim, now named as captain Smit Machchhar, was hailed for saving the lives of those 180 passengers on board. While cruising mid-air, the hero was able to fight off his co-pilot in the cockpit and his attempts to sabotage the plane’s systems.
Distressing footage taken by passengers showed Mr Machchhar with blood dripping from a gash that connected his nose with his forehead. As he struggled to speak, passengers can be heard praising him as a hero, saying: ‘You saved the plane, you did well.’
Flydubai flight FZ1073, which was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv, was diverted over Jordanian airspace this morning before landing at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia.
Graphic footage filmed by passengers on the flight shows the wounded pilot Smit Machchhar lying on the floor as others tend to him
Mr Machchhar was hailed for saving the lives of those 180 passengers on board. While cruising mid-air, the hero was able to fight off his co-pilot in the cockpit and his attempts to sabotage the plane’s systems
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with an Israeli hero who helped prevent the hijacking on the Flydubai plane
It transmitted a general emergency signal using a squawk code – four-digit numbers used for in-flight communication – of 7700 while making a U-turn over the border between the two countries.
While flying over Saudi Arabia, it briefly issued a code of 7500, signalling unlawful interference or a hijacking. Officials feared the incident could have become another ‘September 11’ attack, adding passengers had prevented an ‘Israeli 9/11’ by tying up the assailant.
Israel closed its airspace and scrambled warplanes over fears the jet had been hijacked, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an emergency security meeting with Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz.
Mr Katz described the incident as ‘an attempted jihadist terror attack’ that was ‘thwarted only thanks to the heroism of several Israeli passengers’.
One passenger was filmed telling the Israeli PM that the stabbed captain managed to open the cockpit door before collapsing. This allowed the passengers to enter and seize the attacker, as he was attempting to destroy the aircraft systems and crash the plane.
The Israeli PM has since announced that the assailant has now been arrested and is ‘currently being questioned by the Saudi authorities’.
He added: ‘During the flight, as they were approaching Israel, one of the pilots stabbed the other pilot and, apparently, tried to crash the plane with its passengers on board.
‘I spoke with one of the Israeli passengers. He told me that the plane went into a spin and began to descend. He told me that, somehow, he managed to break into the cockpit with one of the crew members and, together, they overpowered the pilot who had carried out the stabbing while he was attempting to sabotage the aircraft’s systems.
‘Another air crew who was on the plane entered the cockpit and managed to stabilise the aircraft.
Passengers from the flight wait at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia after their flight from Dubai to Israel was diverted
Passengers told Israel’s Channel 12 that they heard shouts from the front of the jet relating to the altercation between the pilots
‘I salute these heroes who demonstrated extraordinary resourcefulness and courage. They saved many lives and prevented a major disaster.’
Footage filmed by passengers showed children and adults on the plane crying out in fright as the jet seemed to veer downwards. Their terror was backdropped by a growing noise of turbulence, while the cabin rattled around them.
One woman was seen crouching in the aisle, while others were seen putting their heads by their legs in the brace position. Another clip showed passengers panicking on the plane.
As a handful of passengers went up to the front to investigate, screams were heard across the cabin. A member of the cabin crew was heard telling passengers to remain seated and fasten their seatbelts.
One passenger recorded a video with blood over his face, emerging from a gash that stretches from his forehead down to his nose.
He said: ‘We’re here during the hijacking of an airplane. At this point we’ve subdued the terrorists, we’re approaching landing. Whoever is hearing me, we need help.
‘We’re landing in Tabuk, apparently in Saudi Arabia. An unknown, unfamiliar area. On the plane, everybody is safe and sound, other than the pilot. We need help.’
A woman holds an Israeli flag, as passengers who were on the Flydubai aircraft are greeted by their friends and family, while they arrive at the Ben Gurion International Airport
The jet dropped from 30,875 feet to 16,750 feet in just 29 seconds
Data from Flightradar24 shows the jet rapidly losing altitude over Saudi Arabia, just two hours after take-off, descending more than 17,000ft (over 5,000m) in less than two minutes just after 05.21 UTC (06.21 BST).
The aircraft recovered slightly for several seconds, reaching 21,650ft, before dropping sharply again, this time to under 14,000ft.
Over the next hour, the plane failed to maintain a steady altitude but it remained at around 15,000ft, indicating it was being controlled by hand rather than autopilot, according to The Times of Israel.
The plane initially transmitted squawk code 7700, indicating a general emergency, before switching to 7500, which signals unlawful interference, and later reverting to the initial code.
A regional official briefed on the incident said a fight broke out in the cockpit and apparently involved pilots, but added it wasn’t immediately clear what had caused the dispute.
Israeli authorities were unable to make contact with the jet during the incident.
The growing consensus among the Israeli security establishment, including the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Mossad, and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), is that the incident was intended as an act of terror.
Passengers on the plane told Israel’s Channel 12 that they heard shouts from others at the front of the jet who overheard the violent altercation.
Images appeared to show that a section of the rudder was missing from the vertical stabiliser after the flight touched down
Passengers file out of the rear of the plane after it landed in Saudi Arabia
According to witnesses, two pilots who were at the back of the jet came forward to help land it, with one passenger saying: ‘I shouted at them to run and take control of the plane.’
As the other pilots took control of the aircraft, passengers ran towards the man who had a knife.
Another passenger on the Boeing 737 MAX told Israel’s Channel 12: ‘We heard screams on the plane. Then they opened the cockpit and we saw blood, and someone had stabbed the pilot with a pocketknife.’
She described how the Israeli passengers helped restrain an attacker along with members of the crew. ‘We prayed, ‘Shema Yisrael’,’ she said.
‘There were also moments when we thought we weren’t going to make it out alive.’
Another woman, identifying herself as Noam, told the network in a call: ‘Screams began on the plane… by passengers who realised what was happening.
‘We understand that one of the pilots was stabbed and seriously wounded, and they lost control of the plane. It started to dive quickly. It was very scary.’
One passenger, Itzhak Liber, recorded a video addressed to his family before uploading it onto Facebook. ‘We took control of the situation here on the flight,’ he said. ‘There was an attacker with a knife who stabbed one of the pilots.
‘We just jumped on him and restrained him together with the pilot.’
He said the attacker had been ‘neutralised’, was ‘seriously injured’ and had been ‘tied up’.
Zvika Manes, a passenger on the plane with his wife and daughter, said the incident was incredibly ‘traumatic’.
He said he heard ‘shouting’ and ‘screams’ as his daughter was in the bathroom while his wife was near the cockpit.
Mr Manes said he went in to help subdue the attacker, adding: ‘I’m covered in blood. It was crazy.’
One passenger, speaking to Channel 12, said her husband helped to ‘neutralise the terrorist’.
The woman, Meital, says a member of the flight crew in the cockpit ‘tried to crash the plane’ and was subdued by passengers.
‘Someone shouted ‘stabbing’ and my husband immediately understood what was happening and rushed to the front of the plane, and along with other Israelis they neutralised the terrorist,’ she said.
‘There were stabbings and a lot of blood,’ Meital added.
‘We’re very emotional and under terrible stress, it’s very difficult for me to talk.’
Flydubai said that a second plane had been sent to Tabuk Airport to pick up stranded passengers.
But Israeli media reported that some passengers on the plane are refusing to board it, instead demanding an Israeli carrier pick them up.
A senior Israeli official told the channel that if the pilots had not been on the jet, the incident could have ended in another ‘September 11, 2001, attack or 1976 Entebbe hostage incident’.
A second official confirmed that Israel had scrambled warplanes, fearing a hijacking of a plane carrying dozens of its citizens.
Not long after the incident, the plane landed in Tabuk, a civilian and military base in the kingdom, with 180 passengers onboard.
Mr Netanyahu has warned in recent days of unspecified, escalated security threats.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was still under investigation.
