UAE Deputy Prime Minister, Defence Minister and Dubai Crown Prince Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum yesterday offered the nation’s ‘full appreciation and praise’ to hero flydubai pilot, Capt Smit Machchhar, during a hospital visit.
Shaikh Hamdan said the pilot – who is receiving medical care in Abu Dhabi after being attacked by his co-pilot on a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday – ‘embodied the highest degrees of courage, responsibility, and care for human life’.
Capt Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door after he was struck with a crash axe, letting in crew members and passengers to help avert disaster as the plane plunged thousands of feet.
A small group of passengers and a reserve pilot overpowered the co-pilot, steadied the plane and managed to land the Boeing 737 in Tabuk, north-western Saudi Arabia.
“From us, and from the leadership of the nation, he has our full appreciation and praise,” Shaikh Hamdan said.
“We are proud that he is part of our team, part of the story of our nation and part of what the UAE stands for.
“A nation of compassion, a nation of peace and a nation of life.”
UAE’s attorney general Hamad Al Shamsi said that investigations had revealed the co-pilot attacked the captain on the flight deck using a crash axe and attempted to take control of the aircraft.
A crash axe is typically kept in a plane cockpit for use during emergencies.
The attorney general said the co-pilot had ‘attempted to carry out a terrorist act’.
He said investigations were continuing to establish the full circumstances and motives behind the incident, including analysing physical and digital evidence.
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