A dentist who helped save a pilot stabbed by a religious extremist as he seemingly attempted a 9/11-style terror attack has shared how the attacker begged him to take his life.
Wednesday’s Flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv erupted into bloodshed at 34,000ft after a flight captain was knifed by his co-pilot as he fought to protect the jet’s controls – as well as the lives of 174 passengers on board.
The commercial plane’s brave occupants managed to wrestle the attacker to the floor and tie him up, as others jumped to regain control of the plummeting jet while attending to the severely wounded captain Smit Machchhar.
In footage taken by passengers, the assailant, who is claimed to be an Omani religious extremist, was seen lying unconscious on the floor beside Mr Machchhar.
New footage has since emerged of the bloodied knifeman sat on the floor of the plane, which landed safely in Saudi Arabia, as his head is bowed and hands are tied.
One of the heroic passengers on board was Georgian Jewish dentist Shota Musaev. Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail after returning to Israel, the 47-year-old recounted how he rushed to the aid of the dying Mr Machchhar – as the attacker pleaded with him to end his life.
‘Everything was going smoothly when, suddenly, we felt the aircraft drop sharply. We thought it was just turbulence. I took out my camera and started filming. Exactly half a minute later, we heard noises from the front: shouting, and a woman screaming, “Knife! Knife!”,’ Mr Musaev said.
‘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.’
The group of four men, he recounted, then ‘grabbed the attacker by the neck’ as they dragged him out of the cockpit. ‘We tied the terrorist up, binding his hands and feet,’ he added. ‘[The attacker said] nothing apart from begging us: “Kill me”.’
Captain Smit Machchhar was carried off the Flydubai jet on a stretcher at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday
The bloodied knifeman, who is believed to be an Omani national, was detained and tied up by heroic passengers on board
Georgian Jewish dentist Shota Musaev, pictured with his wife, was one of the heroic passengers on board
In the same moment, Mr Musaev was pleaded with by the dying captain as he helped administer first aid, who said: ‘Save me. I don’t want to die here.’
‘The pilot was losing a lot of blood,’ he said. ‘His arm was badly slashed, as was his neck, and he had a very deep wound at the back of his head. Everything in the cockpit was covered in blood, but he was conscious. We were effectively left without first-aid supplies. Somehow, we managed to stop the bleeding with pieces of cloth.’
In his harrowing account, the dentist, who was travelling with his wife and children, hailed his partner’s heroism during the traumatic incident.
‘My wife usually gets frightened quite easily, but at that moment she found tremendous strength and was helping absolutely everyone there, every single person,’ he said.
‘When we met prime minister Netanyahu today, people mentioned it there too. Everyone said they had received the greatest possible psychological support from my wife.’
Asked what moment will stay with him, Mr Musaev sobbed: ‘Probably when I told my wife I was going to help and effectively said goodbye to her.’
The wounded Mr Machchhar has been praised for his bravery internationally, including from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr Musaev believes the pilot’s ability to open the cockpit door so the men could enter was a pivotal moment in the plane’s survival.
He said: ‘Had the cockpit remained locked, we probably would not have been able to do anything. It would have been another September 11, the same as what happened in America.
In successfully preventing the believed suicide mission, the dentist believes the ‘world has been saved a war’.
The claimed religious extremist, whose T-shirt was soaked in blood, bowed his head as his hands were tied
A reserve crew that had been aboard landed the plane, which had more than 170 people on board, at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia. Two of whom Mr Musaev said were British pilots.
Mr Netanyahu has since claimed the co-pilot had undergone radical Islamist indoctrination and was clearly suicidal.
‘We know that he underwent Islamist radical indoctrination. That appears to be something we are gathering from his personal information,’ Mr Netanyahu said on Thursday in an interview with Fox News.
Two Israeli security officials said their initial assessment is that the co-pilot, identified as an Omani national, was likely acting alone, though the investigation was still ongoing.
The flight plunged more than 14,000ft in less than 30 seconds during the incident as it flew over Saudi Arabia on the journey from the United Arab Emirates to Israel, according to the flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
The United Arab Emirates has started investigations seeking to establish the circumstances and motives and determine ‘whether the incident was linked to any terrorist activity or purpose, or involved prior planning or direction’, the UAE state news agency reported on Thursday.
Israel’s envoy to the UAE, Yossi Shelley, earlier said it was too early to draw conclusions and no motive had been determined.
Another Israeli official said Israel was not receiving all the information it sought from the Saudis and that Israeli intelligence services, Mossad and Shin Bet, were investigating the incident as well.
Israeli officials have identified the attacker as an Omani national. Omani authorities have not commented.
In a separate interview with Fox News, Mr Netanyahu said the attacker was being investigated in Saudi Arabia and he believed that he would be taken to the UAE.
