How was the Flydubai pilot who attacked his co-pilot cleared to fly? | Explainer News

The diversion of a Flydubai flight certain for Tel Aviv following a pilot brawl has raised questions concerning the pilot vetting course of and aviation safety.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday stated that the flight captain, who was stabbed by the co-pilot, managed to open the cockpit door. He dubbed the captain, Smit Machchhar, an Indian nationwide, “a real hero” for stopping “a catastrophic midair catastrophe”.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has ordered an investigation into the incident. The investigation staff would “gather data and proof to find out the reality of the incident, its circumstances, particulars, and motives, and to confirm the extent of its connection to any terrorist exercise or objective, or the existence of prior planning or path for it”, the UAE’s Attorney General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi stated on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia has but to offer updates relating to the incident.

At this level, there are extra questions than solutions concerning the Flydubai incident. So, how was the alleged attacker allowed to fly, and what do we all know concerning the pilot he stabbed?

What occurred on board Flydubai FZ1073?

At about 8:44 native time, practically two and a half hours after takeoff from Dubai, the misery name got here in.

The captain and his co-pilot have been allegedly engaged in preventing because the plane swiftly misplaced altitude, dropping from 33,000 toes (10,000 metres) to 17,000 toes (5,000 metres) inside a minute, in accordance with Israeli officers.

Netanyahu stated that one of many pilots had stabbed the opposite after which tried to crash the aircraft.

A wounded Machchhar by some means managed to open the cockpit door, permitting passengers and crew to achieve entry and overpower the alleged attacker, Israeli media reported.

The crew accessible on the flight have been in a position to take management of the plane – and safely land it an hour later in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

Both pilots have been injured within the preventing and have been being handled in Saudi Arabia.

What we all know concerning the pilot who allegedly attacked his colleague

Very little verified data has come by to date.

After preliminary therapy, he was taken into custody by authorities in Saudi Arabia, however has not been charged but. No official affirmation has come out relating to his citizenship.

There isn’t any data to date on his flying hours, {qualifications} or whether or not he had flown to Israel earlier than on a Flydubai aeroplane, the place he was reportedly employed lower than a 12 months in the past.

While some Israeli officers rushed to name it a “jihadist assault,” Netanyahu has stated that “it’s too early to say,” whether or not this was a focused assault or one with an Iranian function. He additionally added that any motive behind the alleged assault was not clear.

“I feel he’ll be taken to the Emirates, the place he comes from, or at the least the place he left, the place he flew off from, and we’ll be following and presumably additionally taking part on this investigation,” Netanyahu informed Fox News in an interview.

The preliminary statements from the airline and Saudi authorities say that investigations are persevering with and folks ought to chorus from hypothesis.

How was the co-pilot cleared to fly?

Flydubai is a UAE operator, whose certification and operational oversight fall below the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency informed Reuters that Flydubai’s certification and security oversight relaxation with the GCAA. “This contains accountability for making certain that the operator meets the relevant necessities regarding its flight crews and their health to fly,” EASA stated.

The customary GCAA regulatory framework requires a legitimate skilled pilot’s licence, the suitable plane kind ranking, a present Class 1 medical certificates and English language proficiency alongside required flight expertise.

The Class 1 medical course of covers bodily and psychological well being; pilots with related psychiatric circumstances, substance misuse, or different specified issues may be referred for additional evaluation earlier than being declared match.

“Pilot vetting could be very thorough, from safety and monetary checks to psychological well being analysis,” stated Saj Ahmad, the chief analyst at StrategicAero Research, a London-based aviation consultancy.

“But these checks are a single snapshot in time and can by no means uncover whether or not an individual has points that then manifest within the office or flight deck,” he informed Al Jazeera.

“This is why it’s so arduous to know what individuals assume and what they could do in the event that they really feel a way of some type of injustice,” Ahmad added.

Israeli media has pressed on with claims, quoting the Transport Minister Miri Regev, that an settlement with the UAE mandates that solely pilots holding passports from international locations with diplomatic relations with Israel might land within the nation. Al Jazeera couldn’t confirm this declare.

Israel’s Ministry of Transport Security Department’s description of its tasks contains “safety screening of overseas flights crossing/touchdown in Israel” and directing safety preparations for air transport companies. It doesn’t specify routine particular person background vetting of economic airline pilots or cabin crew.

Now, Israel says it will ramp up safety checks on pilots flying into the nation. “Every pilot that’s going to be flying into Israel, we’re going to know the pilots’ identities, know who they’re, and do some kind of safety examine,” Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister’s workplace, stated.

What do we all know concerning the Indian pilot?

Machchhar, hailed as a hero by prime ministers of Israel and India, hails from a suburb in Mumbai and at present lives in Dubai together with his spouse and two children.

Currently, he’s recovering in a hospital in Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk.

Machchhar managed to activate the discharge to open the cockpit door, in accordance with Israeli officers, permitting passengers and crew to overpower the co-pilot.

Machchhar labored with Indian industrial airline SpiceJet for greater than a decade earlier than becoming a member of Flydubai in 2022, his LinkedIn profile says. He has logged practically 9,750 flying hours over a profession spanning about 15 years.

After college, he enrolled in a textile engineering course with the goal of continuous the household’s trade earlier than pursuing administration research at Mumbai’s Welingkar Institute of Management.

It was there, at an aviation seminar, that he found flying when he was about 19 years previous.

Machchhar later educated in New Zealand earlier than becoming a member of SpiceJet, the place he spent 11 years. He has been with Flydubai for 4 years.

“Delay shouldn’t be my downside. As lengthy as you’re strolling out of the plane is what I would like,” Machchhar stated in a podcast in 2025 on a YouTube channel. “When I get out of the cockpit or the plane, I don’t need the opposite man to know that I’m a pilot,” he stated.

“When I put on the uniform, then no nonsense and simply do your job, end the job. When you stroll out of the cockpit, that’s it. Stop interested by that. Someone else wants you now. The children are there. They wish to play with you,” he had stated.

How uncommon is cockpit violence?

There have been few cases of deliberate violence inside flights.

The sort of “violence within the flight deck can fluctuate, however typically the technique is to open the door in order that different crew members can help,” Ahmad of StrategicAero Research informed Al Jazeera.

“Sadly, these real-time occasions are arduous to foretell and more durable to deliver below management. The Flydubai occasion yesterday was distinctive in that different flight crew have been available to land the airplane,” he stated, referring to crew who have been reportedly flying as passengers earlier than taking up the return flight as crew.

“It’s horrifying to think about what the result would have been if these extra pilots weren’t there to take management,” Ahmad added.

Here are some cases:

• Japan Airlines Flight 350, 1982: Captain Seiji Katagiri intentionally pushed the airplane right into a dive and activated thrust reversers on method to Tokyo. The first officer countered his management inputs whereas the flight engineer bodily restrained the captain. The plane crashed in need of Haneda, killing 24 of 174 individuals on board. Katagiri was later dominated not responsible by purpose of madness.

 

• Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771, 1987: A disgruntled former worker, travelling as a passenger, shot his former supervisor and members of the flight crew. The plane subsequently entered a deadly dive. All 43 individuals on board died.

 

• FedEx Flight 705, 1994: Off-duty FedEx worker Auburn Calloway, travelling within the cockpit bounce seat, attacked the three-person flight crew with a hammer and different weapons in an try and seize the plane. The crew fought him and landed safely in Memphis.

 

• Germanwings Flight 9525, 2015: First officer Andreas Lubitz locked the captain out of the cockpit and intentionally flew the A320 into the French Alps, killing all 150 individuals on board. France’s BEA discovered that the medical-certification system failed to stop a pilot experiencing a critical psychological dysfunction from exercising his licence.

 

• China Eastern Flight MU5735, 2022: The US National Transportation Safety Board knowledge launched this 12 months reveals each engine gasoline switches have been manually moved to CUTOFF earlier than the Boeing 737-800’s deadly dive. But China has not printed a ultimate investigation establishing precisely who made the inputs or why. All 132 on board died.