Flight FZ1073: What Captain Smit Machchhar Says He Did and What Officials Have Confirmed

Captain Smit Machchhar says he fought to open the cockpit door after being injured during an altercation aboard flydubai Flight FZ1073, allowing people outside to intervene. Flydubai confirms that an altercation occurred on the September 30, 2026, flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv and that crew travelling on the aircraft secured it and landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. The airline has not published a detailed account of the confrontation. UAE prosecutors say the co-pilot attacked the captain with a crash axe and tried to take control of the aircraft, but their investigation into the circumstances and motive remains open.

What the captain has said

Speaking by video with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 2, Machchhar described being wounded, falling to the floor and realising that he needed to get up because passengers’ lives were at risk. He was speaking while receiving hospital care. Modi praised his courage and decisions during the emergency and wished him a full recovery.

Machchhar later gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a more detailed account of his recollections. He said he felt repeated blows to the back of his head and initially did not understand what was happening. He recalled that his vision became blurred and that he realised the aircraft was descending. According to Machchhar, an initial attempt to open the cockpit door failed; he then reached its inside release and opened it, enabling people waiting outside to enter. His account is important firsthand testimony, though the precise sequence still needs to be established through the investigation.

Israeli officials have credited Machchhar’s actions with making the intervention possible. Accounts of who entered the flight deck, who restrained the co-pilot and exactly when other pilots took control have varied in their level of detail. Those accounts should not be treated as a complete, verified minute-by-minute reconstruction.

What flydubai and UAE authorities say

Flydubai says on-duty crew members who were travelling aboard FZ1073 secured the aircraft, diverted it and landed it safely at Tabuk. Its chief executive, Ghaith Al Ghaith, thanked the captain, the pilots who secured and landed the aircraft, cabin crew and passengers who assisted. The airline says the captain subsequently returned to the UAE following medical clearance and that everyone on board was safe and receiving support. That assurance does not mean no one was injured: Machchhar has described wounds and received hospital treatment.

The airline’s published account calls the event a flight-deck altercation and leaves the underlying reasons to investigators. On October 3, UAE Attorney-General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi said investigators had found that the co-pilot attacked the captain with a crash axe and attempted to seize the flight controls. He characterised the incident as an attempted terrorist act, while saying inquiries into its full circumstances, motive and any connections were still under way. That is the attorney-general’s assessment at this stage, not a final published finding resolving every aspect of the case.

Early public descriptions referred to a stabbing or a knife. The attorney-general’s later description specifies a crash axe. The weapon, the injuries it caused and any additional claims about how it was used warrant confirmation against the investigation’s evidence rather than being combined into a single settled account.

Details that still need checking

Published passenger totals have differed. Flydubai’s chief executive put the number of passengers and crew on board at 172; other accounts have given higher figures. An independently verified manifest or reconciled official total is needed before presenting one number as definitive. The reported extent of injuries to anyone other than the captain also needs confirmation.

Flydubai says it has temporarily suspended flights to and from Israel while authorities investigate and will review that decision as more information becomes available. For now, the firm points are the airline’s confirmation of the altercation and safe landing, Machchhar’s account of opening the door, and the UAE attorney-general’s stated findings. The detailed sequence, injury record and unresolved discrepancies belong in the reporting workflow until they can be verified.