The man who bravely fought off his co-pilot, who allegedly tried to sabotage the plane’s systems, is Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian citizen working with the lower-cost sister carrier of Emirates Airlines, flydubai.
Captain Machchhar tried to fight him off but was stabbed. Flight FZ 1073 was heading from Dubai International (DXB) to Ben Gurion International Airport on Wednesday morning when an altercation broke out on the flight deck, according to flydubai. The aircraft dropped over 17,400 feet over two minutes during the cockpit struggle, but Netanyahu said a crew member entered the cockpit and stabilised the aircraft.
Cruising mid-air, a pilot tried to sabotage the plane’s system, said Benjamin Netanyahu in a video statement. “During the flight, as the aircraft was approaching Israel, one of the pilots stabbed the other pilot and attempted to crash the plane with everyone on board,” he said. However, a crew member and a passenger broke into the cockpit and “subdued” the suspect. Israel’s foreign ministry said the people on board were from Israel, India and the United Arab Emirates. The US State Department said four passengers had American citizenship. FlyDubai said its flights to and from Israel would be suspended while an investigation takes place. Netanyahu said that he spoke with the UAE’s president, who agreed that Israel would join the interrogation of the suspect.
