Sheikh Saaliq
Updated ,first published
The co-pilot who allegedly stabbed his captain in an apparent attempt to crash a flydubai flight had been banned from flying by Oman, according to US media reports.
The Wall Street Journal and CNN reported that he was removed from an Omani airline last year over concerns about his radical views, with both outlets citing sources familiar with the matter.
Despite the ban, the co-pilot – an Omani national whom the Journal named as Hamam al-Hammami, citing people briefed on the investigation – was hired by flydubai, which allowed him to fly on the sensitive route between the United Arab Emirates and Israel.
The Omani and UAE governments and flydubai had been contacted for comment, the outlets reported.
The co-pilot was born in the UAE to an Omani father and Syrian mother and has spent several years of his life in the UAE, CNN reported, adding that an Israeli official also confirmed his identity though the outlet has not named him.
He was arrested on Wednesday after flight FZ1073 – carrying 182 people from Dubai to Tel Aviv – made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. The motive for the alleged attack is now under investigation and the suspect has been handed over to the UAE, which is leading the probe.
Israel said on Thursday that the suspect was said to have undergone an “Islamist radical indoctrination” in the first formal indication of a motive for a midair emergency likened to the 9/11 attacks in the US.
Meanwhile, the Indian captain who helped thwart the apparent attempt to crash the plane flight described how he fought for his life in the minutes after his co-pilot stabbed him and the plane began a steep descent.
Captain Smit Machchhar, recovering in an Abu Dhabi hospital, told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a video call broadcast live on television news channels that he knew he had to get back on his feet to save the passengers aboard the aircraft.
“I had so many wounds. I had fallen down,” he said from the hospital, his head bandaged and tubes in his nose, before breaking down as he recalled the attack.
“I was fighting for my life. At one point, I realised that if I didn’t get up … then passengers would lose their lives.”
Machchhar, who is from India’s financial hub of Mumbai, was seriously injured in Wednesday’s attack but managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to enter and restrain the attacker as the Boeing 737 descended sharply, witnesses and Israeli authorities said. He has been hailed as a hero for his actions, with world leaders saying he helped prevent a disaster.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacker was arrested in Saudi Arabia. His motive for the attack was not immediately clear. Saudi Arabia later said he had been handed over to the United Arab Emirates.
Modi told Machchhar his “courage, patience, and presence of mind” saved many lives.
Machchhar said his flying experience allowed him to sense the plane’s steep descent even after he was knocked down by the attacker.
“I have been flying planes for 17 years and serving as a captain for the last 11 years. I can sense exactly what is happening with the aircraft even with my eyes closed. When I was down, I could feel that the aircraft was plummeting,” he said.
Machchhar said that during those difficult moments, he recited the Hanuman Chalisa, a Hindu devotional hymn dedicated to Lord Hanuman and traditionally recited as a prayer for strength and courage.
“Lord Hanuman gave me courage,” he told Modi.
Machchhar, who is married and has two children, has worked for flydubai for about four years, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before joining the airline, he spent 11 years with SpiceJet, an Indian low-cost carrier, where he served as a senior commander and line training captain. He logged more than 9750 flying hours with SpiceJet.
In his first public comments on the incident, flydubai chief executive Ghaith Al Ghaith said on Friday that authorities were conducting an official investigation, supported by the airline, after what he described as a “safety incident” in the cockpit.
“It is important that we allow this process to establish the facts,” he said in a written statement, acknowledging that there were “many questions” about what happened on flight FZ1073.
Philip Kean, chief executive of Mainland Air Services, the New Zealand flight school where Machchhar trained, said pilots were taught how to take over if a fellow crew member becomes incapacitated. But the training does not typically prepare them for a stabbing attack by a colleague, he told The Associated Press on Friday.
“I don’t think there’s much in the handbook for being stabbed,” Kean said.
“You’re friends and you’re flying together,” he said. “Nobody would expect … a person to have a go at you like that.”
AP, Reuters
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