A mother travelling on a Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv has described the agonising moment she wondered which of her children to say goodbye to first, telling them their fate was “in God’s hands”.
Lital Hirschl-Shahar, 39, said she believed she was “seeing death coming” during Wednesday’s Flydubai flight FZ1073, which plunged 14,000ft in just 29 seconds during an attempted hijacking.
Captain Smit Machchhar eventually fought off Hamam Al Hammami and, crucially, managed to open the cockpit door after the co-pilot, described as a “jihadist”, struck him on the back of the head with an axe.
Shortly before the attack, Captain Machchhar had turned away from Al Hammami, believing his colleague was praying rather than preparing to assault him. A woman heading to the toilet then witnessed the attack and ran through the aircraft shouting: “He’s stabbing the pilot.”
According to Ms Hirschl-Shahar, four Israeli men immediately rushed towards the cockpit to help Captain Machchhar. Their children cried out: “Father, no! Come back.”
The aircraft lurched and plunged as the men grappled with Al Hammami, a 29-year-old Omani national armed with the axe. They eventually forced him to the floor, restrained him and helped restore control of the plane. Captain Machchhar was later invited to Israel as a guest of honour by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recognition of his bravery.
“We saw death coming. We couldn’t breathe. My oldest of four daughters looked at me and said, ‘Mum, you are all grey.’ I felt as though there was no blood left in my face or head,” Ms Hirschl-Shahar, who was sitting in the tenth row, told Our News Outlet in an exclusive interview.
“But as a mum, I didn’t care about myself. I was only worried about my four souls who were with me. I kept thinking: ‘What can I do? Who should I hold first? Whose hand should I hold first? Who should I hug? How do I do that?’”
“I tried to stay calm for my girls, but the screams were something you can never forget. I was sitting in the middle, next to my five-year-old. I didn’t want them to panic, so I told them we were in God’s hands. Especially then, we just needed to pray.”
Lital Hirschl-Shahar pictured with her four daughters during a holiday in Singapore
Ms Hirschl-Shahar, pictured in Singapore, described the agonising moment she had to decide which of her children to say goodbye to first
The suspected attacker has been identified as Hamam Al Hammami, an Omani national
It has since emerged that Al Hammami, the alleged axeman, had previously been banned from flying over concerns about his extreme views. He was also reported to have spent time in ISIS-controlled Syria and had studied at Buckinghamshire New University.
Investigators in the United Arab Emirates, which is leading the inquiry, said the co-pilot had planned the “terrorist act” and deliberately attacked Captain Machchhar with the weapon.
Airlines are generally required to keep crash axes in the cockpit for emergencies, such as breaking a window or opening a panel to reach a fire. The axes are usually stored where crew members can access them, but passengers cannot.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that the “attempted jihadist terror attack” had been “thwarted only thanks to the heroism of several Israeli passengers”.
Ms Hirschl-Shahar, whose husband was returning separately from the family’s Singapore holiday, believes their lives were saved because of the passengers’ quick response. “We are Israelis, so unfortunately, we know how to react immediately in these situations,” she said.
“We understood that there was a terrorist on our flight, so they fought him, caught him and handcuffed him. Luckily, there were so many miracles on that flight, including the pilots being on board and the pilot’s final push to open the door. Otherwise, we would have crashed.”
Captain Machchhar has been praised for helping save the lives of all 174 people on board, including four Americans, and for preventing what was believed to be a suicide mission.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has invited the Indian national to visit Israel as a guest of honour in May, alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two men have been invited to light a flame at a national ceremony marking Israel’s Independence Day, an honour normally reserved for Israelis.
‘You are a true hero of the brave peoples of India and Israel and you are a hero of the entire world,’ Mr Netanyahu said in a video his office released of his telephone conversation with the captain.
The co-pilot (pictured) is understood to have used the cockpit’s crash axe in his attempt to take control of the Flydubai plane in the ‘terrorist attack’
Graphic footage filmed by passengers on the flight shows the wounded pilot Smit Machchhar lying on the floor as others tend to him
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Asked how the attack unfolded, Mr Machchhar said the co-pilot had asked to take time to pray, as devout Muslims do five times a day. ‘A lot of locals, they do pray, which is not out of the ordinary. While he was praying, out of respect, I was just looking at the front and not at the back,’ the captain said.
‘Suddenly after I think I would say about four to five minutes, there was a big blow to the back of my head. My first thought was that there was catastrophic damage to the aircraft and something is not right.
‘But then after that the blows kept coming one after the other. That’s when I realised that it’s not the aircraft, it’s the other guy who was in the cockpit with me.’
While saying his memory was not entirely clear due to his injury, Mr Machchhar said he managed to pull open the cockpit door ‘but I think he shut it back closed’.
‘I had that one last fight left in me,’ Mr Machchhar explained, saying he knew he faced certain death if not. ‘That’s when I pushed against everything. I gave everything that I had and just went for the door and opened the door and thankfully people were waiting.’
Distressing footage showed Mr Machchhar lying on the ground covered in blood as passengers tended to his injuries, while Al Hammami is seen seemingly lying nearby unconscious. Passengers can be heard telling one of the men: ‘You saved the plane.’
In his first public comments on the incident, flydubai Chief Executive Ghaith al Ghaith on Friday said that the flight diverted after a ‘safety incident’ inside the cockpit.
Smit Machchhar has been hailed a hero for saving the lives of the 174 passengers on board
Passengers file out of the rear of the plane, which appeared to show a section of the rudder missing, after it landed in Saudi Arabia
The flight, carrying 182 people from Dubai to Tel Aviv, was diverted to Tabuk in north-western Saudi Arabia for an emergency landing.
It transmitted a general emergency signal using a squawk code – four-digit numbers used for in-flight communication – of 7700 while making a U-turn over the border between the two countries.
While flying over Saudi Arabia, it briefly issued a code of 7500, signalling unlawful interference or a hijacking. Officials feared the incident could have become another ‘September 11’ attack, adding that passengers had prevented an ‘Israeli 9/11’ by tying up the assailant.
A person who heard the crew’s mayday call with air traffic control described the plane being turned away by Saudi Arabia and Jordan before eventually landing in the major city located in the north-west of the kingdom.
The person, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the pilot’s voice was trembling as he called ‘mayday’ and said a hijacking was taking place and ambulances would be needed.
But Saudi Arabia initially denied clearance to land and directed him to Jordan. The plane was told to wait for clearance from the Jordanian military and then turned away.
The pilot then returned to Saudi Arabia and said he had to land in Tabuk. The air traffic control operators gave no reason for the earlier refusals.
Given the lack of diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Ms Hirschl-Shahar describes how her concerns about landing in the Kingdom were proven wrong.
‘We landed in Saudi Arabia. But I have to say that they were amazing to us. We were scared but they welcomed us. No Israelis have landed in Saudi Arabia before that day,’ she says.
‘We don’t have relationship with them, unfortunately. With all the politics going on, so we didn’t know how it will be now. One radical Muslim already tried to crush us and kill us just because we are Jewish.
‘It’s unbelievable, and now we are landing in another Muslim country, and you don’t know how they will treat you there. But they were amazing, really. We’re in gratitude to them.’
When asked if there was a message she wanted to share, the mother said: ‘Stop chasing the Jews.’
Ms Hirschl-Shahar describes her family as suffering a ‘big trauma’ from the event, with the aftershocks still being felt.
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