A dentist who helped save the pilot stabbed during the FlyDubai terror attack has revealed that the attacker begged him to take his life after being pinned down. The incident unfolded on Wednesday's flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, when a flight captain was allegedly knifed at 34,000ft by his co-pilot as he tried to protect the plane's controls.
Passengers on board managed to fight the attacker to the ground and tie him up, while others rushed to regain control of the plummeting aircraft and attend to the injured Indian captain, Smit Machchhar. Videos circulating online show the knifeman sitting on the floor of the plane, which landed safely in Saudi Arabia, with his head bowed and hands tied together.
Passenger describes cockpit struggle
One of the heroic passengers on board was Georgian Jewish dentist Shota Musaev, 47. He told the Daily Mail that he rushed to help Captain Machchhar as the attacker pleaded with him to end his life.
Musaev said: "Everything was going smoothly when, suddenly, we felt the aircraft drop sharply. We thought it was just turbulence. I took out my camera and started filming. Exactly half a minute later, we heard noises from the front: shouting, and a woman screaming, 'Knife! Knife!' That was when I got up. I realised it was a terrorist attack and joined the people ahead of us, who were the first to rush into the cockpit and pull the terrorist out."
He said that with three other men he then "grabbed the attacker by the neck" and pulled him out of the cockpit. Musaev added: "We tied the terrorist up, binding his hands and feet. [The attacker said] nothing apart from begging us: 'Kill me'."
Captain's wounds and wife's bravery
The dentist said the captain also pleaded with him, saying "Save me. I don't want to die here." He explained: "The pilot was losing a lot of blood. His arm was badly slashed, as was his neck, and he had a very deep wound at the back of his head. Everything in the cockpit was covered in blood, but he was conscious. We were effectively left without first-aid supplies. Somehow, we managed to stop the bleeding with pieces of cloth."
Musaev was on board with his family and praised his wife after the ordeal. He said: "My wife usually gets frightened quite easily, but at that moment she found tremendous strength and was helping absolutely everyone there, every single person. When we met prime minister Netanyahu today, people mentioned it there too. Everyone said they had received the greatest possible psychological support from my wife."
Pilot praised and investigation ongoing
Mr Musaev sobbed as he told the Mail the moment that will stay with him: "Probably when I told my wife I was going to help and effectively said goodbye to her."
The captain has been praised internationally for his bravery, including from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr Musaev matched the prime minister's message that the pilot's ability to open the cockpit door was pivotal in saving the lives of the passengers. He said: "Had the cockpit remained locked, we probably would not have been able to do anything. It would have been another September 11, the same as what happened in America." He claimed that the prevention of the attack means the "world has been saved a war".
Netanyahu said about the attacker: "We know that he underwent Islamist radical indoctrination. That appears to be something we are gathering from his personal information." The incident is still being investigated, but an initial assessment carried out by Israeli officials suggested that the co-pilot was likely acting alone.
