Last Wednesday (local time), the flight’s Indian captain was assaulted by the co-pilot but managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to overpower the attacker and force an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
“The co-pilot had attempted to carry out a terrorist act” and had “attacked the captain in the cockpit with the emergency axe and tried to take control of the aircraft”, WAM quoted UAE Attorney-General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi as saying, referring to initial findings of the investigation.
Passengers described rushing the cockpit and a fight for control after the plane plummeted, losing around 5180m (17,000ft) of altitude in the span of a minute, according to the Flightradar24 website.
Captain Smit Machchhar, who has been hailed as a hero for his actions, trained in New Zealand.
Mainland Air chief executive Philip Kean said Machchhar was with Mainland Air in Dunedin from 2008 to 2009 and remained as a recruitment agent based in India.
Kean described Machchhar as an “above average” pilot.
“He was a bit of a livewire … it’s just horrific. The main thing is that he’s still alive.
“It’s a long way to drop. It’s lucky it didn’t fall apart; those pilots did a great job at recovering the plane.”
This man is a hero.
Captain Smit Machchhar, the Indian captain of flydubai Flight 1073, fought back after being stabbed in the cockpit.
Despite being severely injured, he managed to unlock the cockpit door – allowing Israeli passengers and the Emirati crew to intervene and save… pic.twitter.com/x4W3mtQkag
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) September 30, 2026
Machchhar has described how the attack unfolded, saying the assailant hit him in the back of the head after asking for time to pray, as devout Muslims do five times a day.
“My first thought was that there was catastrophic damage to the aircraft and something is not right,” he said.
“But then after that the blows kept coming one after the other. That’s when I realised that it’s not the aircraft, it’s the other guy who was in the cockpit with me.”
While saying his memory was not entirely clear due to his injury, Machchhar said he managed to pull open the cockpit door “but I think he shut it back closed”.
“I had that one last fight left in me,” Machchhar explained, saying he knew he faced certain death if not.
“That’s when I pushed against everything.”
The co-pilot is in custody in the UAE. Multiple media outlets identified him as Hamam al-Hammami and said he had been banned from flying in Oman over concerns about his extremist views.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the suspect had undergone “Islamist radical indoctrination” and had attempted to crash the plane.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Omani authorities had barred the pilot from flying over suspicions he had adopted radical ideological views, citing people familiar with the matter.
CNN, citing two sources also familiar with the matter, reported that the pilot was removed from a job at Oman’s national airline last year.
Al Arabiya, citing an informed source, also reported that Omani authorities had determined the co-pilot held extremist views.
The broadcaster said he had spent time in Syria, raising concerns he may have been influenced by radical groups there.
ABC News, citing senior intelligence and law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation, reported the suspect had allegedly been found in possession of extremist materials while a trainee.
– NZ Herald with additional reporting AFP
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