A six-year-old girl inadvertently helped uncover an alleged bid to hijack control of a Flydubai passenger aircraft after going to the toilet with her mother shortly before chaos broke out in the cockpit.
Nina Manes was on board with her parents, Tali and Tzika, during a journey from Dubai to Tel Aviv when the co-pilot allegedly knifed the captain while attempting to commandeer the plane, The Mirror reports. While Nina and her mother made their way through the cabin, Mrs Manes detected what she subsequently characterised as dodgy sounds emanating from the cockpit and hurried to check.
Mother's alarm and father's dash
"There was blood all over the cockpit and very, very sharp fighting moves," she told Israeli broadcaster Channel 12. "I screamed, 'He is stabbing the pilot, he is stabbing the pilot, come help!' People looked at me and didn't understand."
Nina's father, Tzvika, then apparently dashed to retrieve his daughter from the bathroom, recounting: "The shrieks of my daughters when the plane nosedived [are still with me]. They said, 'Dad we don't want to die.' [Their cries] were the triggers that caused me to run inside the cockpit."
Nosedive and emergency landing
The pandemonium kicked off roughly two and a half hours into the flight, with the aircraft plummeting from 33,000ft to 17,000ft in approximately a minute. Following the nosedive, the Boeing 737 Max 8 performed an irregular loop near the Jordanian border before touching down in Tabuk, as per Flightradar24.
Shota Musayev, a dentist who had treated the captain, filmed footage from inside the aircraft showing the copilot on his knees, hands bound behind his back. "We asked if there was a doctor on the plane, there was a dentist," Tzvika continued. "He saved the life of the Indian captain, gave him oxygen, stopped his bleeding with blankets and all kinds of equipment that was in the area."
Investigation and international cooperation
The Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia confirmed that Captain Smit Machchhar, widely hailed as one of the flight's heroes, was in a stable condition overnight. The suspect, an Omani national, had been taken into custody, according to a regional authority, who noted that Saudi officials were collaborating with several nations, including Israel, in an effort to establish a motive.
The UAE, US and Oman are also understood to be assisting with the inquiry. "All possible scenarios, from terrorism to mental disorders, are being looked into. Nothing is ruled out for now," said the official, who spoke under the condition of anonymity.
Israeli intelligence and security personnel had travelled to Saudi Arabia to assist in the investigation of the copilot, according to a separate regional source. Israel has formally requested that the copilot be extradited for questioning on Israeli soil, though whether this appeal will be granted remains uncertain, the official added.
Neither Israel nor Saudi Arabia maintain formal diplomatic relations, in part owing to the former's occupation of Palestine, although both countries have previously collaborated on security and intelligence issues via unofficial channels.
Investigators spearheaded by Abu Dhabi have commenced examining "whether it was linked to any terrorist purpose", the government has confirmed, highlighting that its authorities hold jurisdiction as the aircraft is registered there and UAE law governs offences committed aboard.
Asaf Rajuan, amongst those who stepped in, remarked in a statement released by Israel's presidency: "We felt helpless, suspended in mid-air, and I didn't know who to turn to. But it was all instinct to survive."
