Captain of flydubai plane describes blocking axe blows as co-pilot attacked

Captain Smit Machchhar has been credited with averting a disaster on a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv last month. According to Al-Monitor, the UAE attorney general described the incident as an attempted suicide attack by a co-pilot who intended to crash the aircraft into Ben Gurion Airport.

In an interview with The National, Machchhar described defending himself from axe blows directed at his head. Dawn reports that Machchhar initially believed the first blow was caused by a malfunction in the aircraft structure before realizing he was under attack. He stated that he freed himself from his seat belts and attempted to block the blows, which resulted in wounds to his arm.

Machchhar said he reached for the cockpit door knob and screamed for help before losing consciousness. The aircraft, identified by Dawn and Investing.com as flight FZ1073, was in Saudi airspace when the attack occurred.

Brief written by urgent.news from Al-Monitor, Dawn, Jerusalem Post, Investing.com — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.