Flydubai captain recounts cockpit stabbing as UAE opens investigation into co-pilot attack

Captain Smit Machchhar opened the cockpit door despite stab wounds, letting passengers overpower a co-pilot who attacked him on a Dubai–Tel Aviv flight.

• Machchhar told Modi during a video call that he knew the aircraft was going down as he lay bleeding on the cockpit floor.
• The Wall Street Journal reported Omani authorities had previously barred the co-pilot from flying in Omani airspace over suspected extremist views.
• The first Israeli repatriation flight left Dubai on Friday as Flydubai suspended Tel Aviv flights pending the investigation.
• The UAE said it will launch an investigation into the incident.
• The UAE Attorney General said the co-pilot attacked the captain with an emergency axe in an attempted terrorist act and tried to seize the aircraft.
• Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said investigations showed the co-pilot attempted a 'terrorist operation,' attacking the captain with an emergency axe and trying to seize control.
• Unnamed diplomatic sources identified the co-pilot as Hamam al-Hammami, an Omani national, though his identity and motives remain unconfirmed.
• The aircraft landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, following the mid-flight attack.
• The co-pilot cooperated with the investigation and told interrogators he intended to crash the plane inside Israel, ABC News reported.