A dentist who helped save a pilot during an apparent 9/11-style terror attempt has described how the religious extremist who carried out the attack begged him to end his life.
Flydubai flight FZ1073, travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday, descended into chaos at 34,000ft when the captain was stabbed by his co-pilot while trying to protect the aircraft’s controls and the 174 passengers aboard.
Passengers overpowered the attacker and restrained him on the floor, while others helped regain control of the plunging aircraft and treated the critically injured captain, Smit Machchhar.
Passenger-recorded footage showed the alleged Omani religious extremist lying unconscious beside Captain Machchhar after being removed from the cockpit.
Further footage showed the bloodied attacker sitting on the cabin floor with his head bowed and his hands bound. The aircraft later landed safely in Saudi Arabia.
Among those who intervened was Georgian Jewish dentist Shota Musaev. Speaking exclusively to Our News Outlet after returning to Israel, the 47-year-old described rushing to help the badly wounded captain while the attacker pleaded with him to kill him.
“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!’” Mr Musaev said.
“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.”
Mr Musaev said four men seized the attacker by the neck and dragged him from the cockpit. They then bound his hands and feet. “He said nothing apart from begging us: ‘Kill me,’” he added.
Captain Smit Machchhar was carried from the Flydubai aircraft on a stretcher at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday
The bloodied attacker, believed to be an Omani national, was detained and restrained by passengers
Georgian Jewish dentist Shota Musaev, pictured with his wife, was among the passengers who intervened
As Mr Musaev helped administer first aid, the seriously wounded captain pleaded with him: “Save me. I don’t want to die here.”
“The pilot was losing a lot of blood,” he said. “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.”
Mr Musaev, who was travelling with his wife and children, also paid tribute to his wife’s courage during the terrifying ordeal.
“My wife usually gets frightened quite easily, but at that moment she found tremendous strength and was helping absolutely everyone there, every single person,” he said.
“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.”
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Asked which moment would remain with him, Mr Musaev broke down in tears. “Probably when I told my wife I was going to help and effectively said goodbye to her,” he said.
Captain Machchhar has received international praise for his bravery, including from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr Musaev said the captain’s decision to open the cockpit door so passengers could enter was crucial to preventing a catastrophe.
“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.”
In successfully preventing the believed suicide mission, the dentist believes the ‘world has been saved a war’.
The claimed religious extremist, whose T-shirt was soaked in blood, bowed his head as his hands were tied
A reserve crew that had been aboard landed the plane, which had more than 170 people on board, at Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia. Two of whom Mr Musaev said were British pilots.
Mr Netanyahu has since claimed the co-pilot had undergone radical Islamist indoctrination and was clearly suicidal.
‘We know that he underwent Islamist radical indoctrination. That appears to be something we are gathering from his personal information,’ Mr Netanyahu said on Thursday in an interview with Fox News.
Two Israeli security officials said their initial assessment is that the co-pilot, identified as an Omani national, was likely acting alone, though the investigation was still ongoing.
The flight plunged more than 14,000ft in less than 30 seconds during the incident as it flew over Saudi Arabia on the journey from the United Arab Emirates to Israel, according to the flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
The United Arab Emirates has started investigations seeking to establish the circumstances and motives and determine ‘whether the incident was linked to any terrorist activity or purpose, or involved prior planning or direction’, the UAE state news agency reported on Thursday.
Israel’s envoy to the UAE, Yossi Shelley, earlier said it was too early to draw conclusions and no motive had been determined.
Another Israeli official said Israel was not receiving all the information it sought from the Saudis and that Israeli intelligence services, Mossad and Shin Bet, were investigating the incident as well.
Israeli officials have identified the attacker as an Omani national. Omani authorities have not commented.
In a separate interview with Fox News, Mr Netanyahu said the attacker was being investigated in Saudi Arabia and he believed that he would be taken to the UAE.
READ MORE: Flydubai hijacker ‘was suicidal’ and ‘had undergone Islamist radical indoctrination’, Benjamin Netanyahu says
