Flydubai pilot: ‘I thought about my son, my daughter, I didn’t give up’

Capt. Smit Machchhar of flydubai Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Sept. 30 said that he never gave up on making it out alive and saving all 172 passengers aboard, when the co-pilot terrorist attacked him and attempted to crash the aircraft.

Before the attack began, he held no suspicions against the co-pilot, Machchhar told Emirati state-owned outlet The National News in an interview from his hospital bed in Abu Dhabi published on Saturday night.

“It was a morning flight. So, yeah, there was some small talk, but there was not really like a deep conversation,” he continued.

It was the first time he met first officer Hamam al-Hammami, 29.

Machchahar’s interactions with al-Hammami have not led anywhere that “would have caused me to think that ‘Hey, hold on, there is something off,’” the flight captain recounted.

Speaking with Sky News Arabia in a separate interview published the same day, Machchahar said that the first officer at one point started praying behind him in the cockpit. Out of respect, Machchahar refrained from looking over his shoulder at al-Hammami.

Suddenly, as they flew over the Saudi desert, Machchhar was hit by the crash ax stored in the cockpit for emergencies. He initially thought that something had accidentally fallen on him.

“It almost made me fall on my control column. ... In the next couple of seconds, when the hit kept on coming, [I realized] it’s not the aircraft, it’s the other person who I thought was supposed to be [on] the team,” he continued relaying to The National.

When Machchhar realized what was happening, he said that his survival instincts kicked in and his immediate thought was, “I need to get help in here.”

He first released himself from the seat belt while trying to block the repeated ax blows, he related.

The pilot further noted that his eyesight narrowed from the blows and he could only see “the outlines.”

“Immediately my hand went to the knob which opens the [cockpit] door and screaming for my colleagues ..., and in the entire excitement, in the entire hyped up situation, I believe that was the first time when I lost my consciousness,” Machchhar said, referring to the crew on the plane.

“The scariest thing that I heard and felt was the engines spooling down. When I say spooling down, it’s the engine sound going from full blast to like ... not what you want at that stage in the flight. And I felt the aircraft was steeply going down,” he described the moments when the aircraft reportedly dived some 17,000 feet in less than a minute.

Machchhar said that in these moments, he kept coming in and out of consciousness as he was losing blood.

Yet he kept pushing the knob to open the door so others would come in and help.

Speaking of those who mustered the courage to enter the cockpit and subdue al-Hammami, he said, “If I have to say how many people were trying to control the situation, I would say a million. I know it doesn’t make sense, but, yeah, I would say a million people were trying to take over control.”

Asked why the terrorist started the attack over Saudi air space and not closer to the Ben-Gurion Airport—where he had originally plotted to crash the plane, according to investigations’ findings—Machchhar said he could not explain it.

He went on to say that even as the substitute pilot for the return flight took control over the plane, he was still was not sure he would come out of the incident alive. “Did I give up? No,” he added.

“I prayed a lot,” he continued. “I thought about my son, my daughter, and prayed. That was the point where I would say I didn’t give up.”

Machchhar, of Indian origin, lives today in the United Arab Emirates with his wife and children and says that the incident does not deter him from returning to flying.

“I’m like any other guy, any other pilot who’s obsessed over planes and aviation, and I love my family. ... Did my love die for aviation? Not at all. Not at all. I’m just glad that I was able to do my part,” he said.