'It went on like a normal day till it wasn’t,' Smit recalled
MUMBAI: Two hours into the flight from Dubai to Tel Avivi, flydubai commander, Capt Smit Machchar was checking landing time and fuel figures on the computer when something struck hard at the back of his head.
He thought part of his Boeing 737’s cockpit roof had broken loose. Seconds later, as more blows rained in, he turned and saw it was his co-pilot. Bleeding, his vision shrunk to a few inches, he drifted in and out of consciousness during those fateful minutes when the aircraft went into a rapid descent, while the attack continued. “There was a moment I told myself, Smit, do something, you can’t die like this,” said the flydubai pilot, recounting the Sept 30 terror attack on flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, which was diverted and landed in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.The pilot said his memory of what followed is fragmented, a gap he is still working through with doctors and psychologists. In his first extended account since the incident, given to Sky News Arabia on Sat evening, Machchar said an ordinary flight, with a co-pilot he was flying with for the first time, turned violent minutes after the man stood up to pray.It was a route he had flown many times. An augmented crew was on board, and the relief captain was to take over operating duties after landing.
“Normal flight,” he told the channel. “It went on like a normal day till it wasn’t.”About two hours in, the relief captain had dropped by the cockpit to chat about rosters and flying hours when the co-pilot, who had stepped out for a toilet break, returned. A few minutes into their conversation, he said he wished to pray and asked the relief captain to step out. Machchar said such requests are accepted in the region when the flight is stable.The co-pilot asked the other Captain to step out, stood up behind him and began praying. “Out of respect, I did not look back. I was checking the landing time and fuel figures on the computer, the routine background tasks of the monitoring pilot. Suddenly there was a very hard hit at the back of my head,” he said. “It was something very strong and hard. I didn’t know at that point what had hit me.” He fell forward, and his mind reached for training.
“My first thought was, okay, something has broken from the aircraft roof, and it has been a catastrophic damage. I was planning to regain my composure and check my systems.”The blows kept coming. Within seconds his vision had narrowed to a few inches, he said. When he glanced back, he understood. “He was saying something while hitting me, but I could not understand.” Machchar unbuckled and tried to shield himself, taking a blow on his hand.
“That’s when something flipped,” he said. He screamed for the relief captain and, since the door switch was within reach, managed to open it. He lost consciousness for the first time soon after.
He recalled hearing shouting between the co-pilot and the other crew before the door shut again, with the co-pilot threatening to hit them too.It was after this, he said, that he heard the engines spool down and felt the aircraft pitch into a dive.
“I don’t have to see the instruments, I can have my eyes closed and still know the engines are spooling down and the aircraft is going down. Every pilot will tell you this.”Drifting in and out of consciousness from blood loss, he said, he reached a point of decision. “I told myself, Smit, do something. You can’t die like this. I’m not saying I accepted my death. It was like, do something, otherwise...” The pilot added his memory of what followed is fragmentary, a gap he is still working through with doctors and psychologists.
He said he remembers locking his legs against something and pushing toward the door.
He said he remembers then lying face down between the cockpit and the galley, the door open, passengers panicking.Machchar credited his colleague for taking the controls and recovering the aircraft, calling it something he will carry “till I die.” Asked about the speculation over how the plane was saved, he declined to single anyone out.
“Everyone did the best in their capacity,” he said, including crew and passengers.He said he knew he was out of danger only when the aircraft touched down. Until then a doctor on board and his crew kept him conscious. “At that point, what I was more focused on was to not give up on life. You say you see flashes and stuff like that (speaking about death). You just remember the person who matters the most,” he said. The first call he made was to his 2-year old son. In the days that followed the incident, he continued to get flashes of the first blow.
The commander added that he has been getting better with each passing day and can now sit and have conversations.