The pilot who was attacked by a co-pilot attempting to crash a Flydubai passenger plane bound for Israel has shared that he managed to endure the situation by thinking of the passengers despite threats to his life.

Indian national Smeet Machar, who operated the Dubai-Tel Aviv flight in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where the incident occurred on September 30, spoke about the tense moments during the accident in a video call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 2, local time.

During his call with Prime Minister Modi, Captain Machar recalled, "I suffered many injuries and collapsed to the floor."

He added, "I fought with my life on the line, and at some point, I realized that if I didn't get up from there, the passengers could lose their lives as well."

Captain Machar was seriously injured after the Omani co-pilot wielded a weapon, but he managed to unlock the cockpit door, allowing three Israeli passengers and a crew member to enter the cockpit and subdue the co-pilot.

Captain Machar was transferred from Saudi Arabia, where the aircraft made an emergency landing, to a hospital in the UAE the previous day and is currently recovering at a hospital in Abu Dhabi.

It was revealed that the co-pilot who attacked Captain Machar had previously been banned from flying in Oman due to concerns over his radical ideological inclinations.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, citing sources that day, that despite this ban, he was subsequently hired by UAE-based airline Flydubai and deployed on the UAE-Israel route, which carries high security sensitivity due to Middle East tensions and terror threats.

However, it has not been confirmed whether Omani authorities shared their concerns regarding the co-pilot's radical ideological tendencies with other countries or airlines at the time.

It is also unknown what specific kind of radical ideology he subscribed to.

The investigation into the incident is currently being led by the UAE.

This is because international aviation law grants priority jurisdiction over crimes committed aboard aircraft to the country of aircraft registration.

A UAE government spokesperson stated that they would not comment on the co-pilot's history of flight bans in Oman "to avoid pre-judging or influencing the investigation."

However, Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, took to X (formerly Twitter) to praise the pilot for preventing the worst-case scenario of a plane crash, labeling the incident a "dangerous act of terror."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also classified the attempted intentional plane crash as terrorism.

Prime Minister Netanyahu claimed, "The attacker went through a process of Islamic radicalization," adding, "He tried to crash the aircraft with passengers on board."

As the investigation into the incident continues, Flydubai has temporarily suspended all flights to Israel, a popular route, leaving hundreds of passengers traveling between the two countries stranded.

Approximately 180 people were on board the accident aircraft, a significant portion of whom are Israeli.

An Israeli official stated that special repatriation flights began operating that day to bring home Israeli passengers stranded in UAE due to the suspension of bilateral flights.

The incident is expected to serve as a test for the UAE government, which has built a reputation for effectively countering extremist activities.

Aviation security specialists pointed out that not only did the weapon pass through security screening, but an individual with the intent to crash an aircraft should have been filtered out through identity verification stages before reaching the airport, already evaluating the incident as a major security failure.

Jon Alterman, senior vice president and director of the Middle East Program at the US think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told the Associated Press, "The UAE wants to be perceived not as a place with serious vulnerabilities, but as a very secure place," adding, "The UAE will care about protecting its reputation."
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)