Flydubai passengers said preparing huge class-action suit against airline, governments

The majority of the passengers on the flydubai flight that underwent a thwarted terror attack are readying a massive class action suit against the airline as well as the transportation ministries of Israel and the United Arab Emirates, the Calcalist business news outlet reported Sunday.

The suit will seek hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for the incident on flydubai Flight 1073, on which the Omani copilot attacked the captain and attempted to crash the plane, only to be stopped by the wounded captain and several Israeli passengers.

The suit is the latest attempt to hold authorities accountable for the September 30 attack. Israel’s Transportation Ministry, which is responsible for civil aviation safety and oversight of foreign flights, has faced heavy scrutiny in the wake of the incident. The attack is still being investigated, and on Saturday, Asaf Rajuan, one of the passengers who stopped the attack, recalled his suspicions about members of the flight crew, though investigators do not believe they were involved.

Some 100 of the 174 passengers have signed onto the legal effort, and have appointed a committee from the passenger body to manage the suit. It will be led by Tzvika Manes, one of the Israelis who subdued the attacker and who is CEO of Bank Leumi’s underwriting arm Barak Leumi, a position that gives him international legal contacts, according to the report.

Other members of the committee include Tal Eisenberg, an Israeli lawyer based in Singapore, Daniel Schlichter, Itay Perlman and Shir Maor, Calcalist reported. The passengers are organizing the effort via a group chat on the WhatsApp messaging platform that they began organizing before disembarking from the plane.

The passengers’ committee will seek legal representation and may also sue governments beyond Israel and the UAE, since some passengers hold citizenship elsewhere. Those who have not signed onto the suit may still be considering doing so, or may pursue legal action on their own.

Hebrew media reports citing legal experts, said in the days after the flight that passengers could expect to win approximately $200,000 to $250,000 each in compensation due to the attack. Were each of the 174 passengers to receive that amount, the total sum would add up to $43.5 million, excluding legal fees and other ancillary costs.

The passengers would be able to sue the airline under the Montreal Convention, an international framework for compensating passengers for damage, injury or death during a flight. Israel and the UAE are parties to the convention. The Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between the countries in 2020, also contain text on aviation safety.

Hero passenger: I told investigators about suspicious crew

Rajuan, one of the Israeli heroes who helped subdue the terrorist copilot Hamam al-Hammami, told Channel 12 on Saturday that he had told investigators about his concerns regarding two of the flight attendants.

In an interview, Rajuan described the two crew members as “strapping,” saying they weren’t the “typecast” of flight attendants.

He also said that in retrospect the two acted unusually during beverage and food service, but acknowledged there was nothing they did that was particularly suspicious.

“Something there smelled off,” he said, alleging the two crew members were exchanging nervous glances and that one of them asked in an accusatory manner if he was a police officer.

According to Rajuan, he told security officials the two had a code to enter the cockpit and were “coming and going,” which he said should be looked into. It was unclear when that happened on the flight.

He also said one of the flight attendants brought an unidentified pill — which he noted could have been aspirin — to Captain Smit Machchhar as Dr. Shota Musayev, an Israeli dentist, was treating the wounds he sustained in the attack by his Omani copilot. Rajuan pointed out that Machchhar had an oxygen mask on, which they yelled at the crew member.

Additionally, Rajuan said it was suspicious how the crew yelled at passengers not to film and alleged that one flight attendant was “slowly loosening” the zip ties that had been used to bind the terrorist.

“We said to him, ‘What are you doing? What are you doing?’ It drove us crazy, we almost jumped on him,” he said. “We were afraid of them. They were beasts. You touch him, you feel like you’re touching a rock… One of my fears is that one of them would take a weapon, take out a knife, something.”

Asked if it was possible that the crew members were stressed, as were the passengers, he responded that it was possible.

“Therefore I’m not coming out with declarations, I’m telling you my feelings and what we saw,” he said.

Rajuan also noted that one of the two crew members was looking around for some 30 minutes while “bent over” the wounded Indian pilot “as if he wanted to do something… And then at some point… he grabbed my hand and looked me in the eyes and said something like, ‘If he will be dead, we will land safe.'”

“I was a little in shock,” he said.

Both the interviewer and Rajuan also suggested that it was suspicious that the two off-duty pilots aboard the flight who took control of the plane after the attack and landed it in Saudi Arabia haven’t appeared publicly since the incident.

Israel has said it does not believe any other members of the flydubai aircrew were involved in Hammami’s attempt to crash the plane, according to an October 5 Channel 12 news report.

Crew members were questioned by investigators in the UAE, who concluded that the other crew members were not involved, that report said. The aircrew members were questioned at Israel’s request, after some passengers reported what they considered strange behavior. The crew members acknowledged they were shocked and rattled by the unfolding attack.

Confirming on Friday that Hammami intended to crash the plane into Ben Gurion Airport, the UAE said the pilot confessed to acting alone, but the UAE’s attorney general was quoted saying an investigation was still ongoing into possible accomplices.