‘Is there a doctor or pilot?’: New video shows chaos on flydubai flight after attack thwarted

New footage aired Thursday by Israeli television showed the chaotic moments aboard flydubai Flight 1073 after passengers and crew members thwarted an apparent attempt to crash the plane flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv.

In a video clip shared by Channel 12 news, which was filmed from a seat near the cockpit, people shout in a mixture of English and Hebrew, with one person saying “he tried to crash the plane,” in reference to the Omani copilot who stabbed the plane’s Indian captain. Others yell “take him out” in the direction of the cockpit and order people in the cabin to “sit down.”

It was not immediately clear when the camera was first turned on. As a result of the attack, the plane went into a nosedive before Yaniv Hayun, a plumber who helped storm the cockpit to subdue the copilot, stabilized it, allowing a second pair of flydubai pilots onboard to take control of the aircraft and land it.

Following a pause in recording, repeated calls for a doctor can be heard. Dr. Shota Musayev, an Israeli dentist, then rushes to the front of the plane to provide medical treatment, though it can’t be seen to whom.

As the shouts of “sit down” continue, a man asks in Hebrew whether there is an additional pilot on the flight, to which someone responds affirmatively.

The footage then cuts to a bloodied Captain Smit Machchhar lying on the ground outside the cockpit, whose door he earlier managed to click open and, in doing so, helped save the lives of all 180 people on the plane. Machchhar explains the copilot “hit me so many times” and that he can move his injured hand but no longer squeeze it shut.

Nearby is the wounded attacker, whose uniform is also covered in blood, as crew members surround him. “This is who wanted to stab [the pilot],” a man says in Hebrew, before correcting himself that “this is who did stab him, not wanted to.”

The video resumes after the plane made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, as medics attend to Machchhar on a raised platform outside the aircraft door. Those still inside the plane are heard asking where the police are and insisting the copilot must remain on board with them.

“No one will release him,” a Hebrew speaker declares as the copilot is seen on his knees with his hands bound behind his back.

“This is terrorist, you understand, yes? We need police,” one of the flydubai stewards then says in English, as another person responds, “He cannot go anywhere. He is here with us.”

As the camera focuses on the attacker, an Israeli passenger speaking English says, “He’s like this one hour forty minutes, more… It’s OK.”

The video ends with Machchhar complaining to the medics about his wounded hand as Asaf Rajuan, one of the Israelis who helped subdue the copilot, confirms taking “a blow” to the head, and a voice says in English, “Saudi, problem.”

“We’ll laugh about this one day,” a voice says offscreen as the footage finishes.

‘He failed in the mission and preferred to die’

The new footage came amid continued investigations into the copilot, who was transferred Thursday from Saudi custody to the UAE, which announced it was probing “whether the incident was linked to any terrorist activity or purpose, or involved prior planning or direction.”

With the copilot in Abu Dhabi, Israel “can now join the UAE’s investigation team and get precise knowledge of what his motives were, who was behind him, what his plans were,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman David Mencer told Fox News.

According to Hayun, the Israeli who steadied the plane, the copilot called out, “Kill me,” after being tied up.

In a clip released by the Government Press Office, Musayev described how the Israelis initially used headphone wire to tie up the copilot, “to ensure that he could not start to go wild.”

Hayun interjected, “He shouted, ‘Kill me, kill me,’ in English.”

“That means he had failed in the mission and preferred to die,” asserted Hayun.

Netanyahu referred to that in a Fox News interview on Thursday, in which he said the Omani copilot “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination,” without elaborating, and also quoted the attacker as saying, “Kill me, kill me.”

Netanyahu also again stressed “it’s too early to say whether there was Iranian collusion,” but said he anticipated more definitive findings soon.