The United Arab Emirates has said the co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 attempted to carry out a terrorist act, using a crash axe against the captain and trying to take control of the aircraft during a Dubai–Tel Aviv service on Wednesday.
The UAE prosecutor general said on Saturday that the co-pilot “attempted to carry out a terrorist act” and tried to take control of the aircraft’s flight controls, Al Jazeera reported. The statement, carried by a state news agency, said investigators would establish the circumstances and motives of the incident.
A crash axe is standard cockpit equipment, kept for use in emergencies such as cutting through panelling or jammed fittings.
What happened aboard FZ1073
The captain, Indian national Smit Machchhar, was attacked at the controls on the morning of 30 September. The aircraft went into a sharp descent before passengers and crew intervened, subdued the co-pilot and helped stabilise the flight.
The plane was diverted to Tabuk in north-western Saudi Arabia, where a reserve flydubai pilot crew who happened to be travelling on the flight landed it, the Daily Mirror reported. The co-pilot was detained by Saudi authorities. Passengers reached Ben-Gurion Airport on a later aircraft that Wednesday evening.
Accounts of the number aboard differ slightly: Al Jazeera put 174 passengers on the flight, while the wire copy carried by Hiru News said 182 people were on board — figures that are consistent if the higher number includes crew. The Daily Mirror said “over 170 passengers and crew”.
Questions over how he was cleared to fly
Hiru’s report, citing a person familiar with the investigation speaking anonymously, said the co-pilot had previously been barred from flying by Oman over concerns that he had adopted extremist views, and was subsequently hired by flydubai. It said it was not immediately clear how thoroughly he was vetted. That account was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The same report described the co-pilot as born in the UAE to a Syrian mother. He has not been officially named, and published descriptions of his nationality are not consistent — LankaNewz has not been able to verify these details independently.
How he came to be rostered on an Israel-bound service is a central question for investigators. Israel maintains arrangements with foreign carriers intended to keep pilots from countries with which it has no diplomatic relations out of its airspace; Israel and Oman have no formal relations.
Flights suspended indefinitely
Flydubai has suspended all flights from Dubai to Ben-Gurion Airport until further notice, at what it called the request of the authorities. The carrier had said on Friday that services would be halted until 15 October; the latest statement extends that indefinitely.
Chief Executive Ghaith Al Ghaith said flydubai teams were “working around the clock to support disrupted passengers and help them reach their final destinations”.
