The captain of a Flydubai flight that came under a violent axe attack in the cockpit last month has given his first detailed account of the ordeal. Flight FZ1073, carrying 172 passengers and crew from Dubai to Tel Aviv on September 30, was in the air when the first officer struck Captain Smit Machchhar repeatedly with an axe, inflicting serious injuries to his head and arm.
"Blows kept coming, I felt the aircraft going down," Captain Machchhar recalled, describing how he tried to block the attack as best he could before falling face down on the cockpit floor. As the assault unfolded, the first officer seized the controls of the Boeing 737 and sent it into a dive, losing roughly 17,000 feet of altitude in under a minute.
Despite his injuries, Captain Machchhar managed to unlock the cockpit door, allowing crew members and passengers to rush in and subdue the attacker. Two off-duty Flydubai pilots who happened to be travelling on the same flight then stepped in to take control of the aircraft and bring it down safely. All 172 people on board survived the ordeal.
The first officer was detained upon landing in the UAE and now faces terrorism-related charges. Prosecutors allege he had been radicalised by extremist content online and had previously attended a religious study centre in Australia. The case is being described as one of the most serious aviation security incidents in the region in recent years, and has renewed attention on cockpit security protocols and crew screening procedures across the airline industry.