How was the Flydubai co-pilot who attacked his captain cleared to fly?

The Flydubai scare has raised several questions for Israel and the civil aviation industry.

Workers prepare a FlyDubai flight at Dubai International Airport [File: Jon Gambrell/AP Photo]

The diversion of a Flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv following a pilot brawl has raised questions about the pilot vetting process and aviation security.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said that the flight captain, who was stabbed by the co-pilot, managed to open the cockpit door. He dubbed the captain, Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, “a true hero” for preventing “a catastrophic midair disaster”.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has ordered an investigation into the incident. The investigation team would “collect information and evidence to determine the truth of the incident, its circumstances, details, and motives, and to verify the extent of its connection to any terrorist activity or purpose, or the existence of prior planning or direction for it”, the UAE’s Attorney General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi said on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia has yet to provide updates regarding the incident.

At this point, there are more questions than answers about the Flydubai incident. So, how was the alleged attacker allowed to fly, and what do we know about the pilot he stabbed?

A second Flydubai plane was sent to Saudi Arabia to retrieve the stranded passengers and return them to Israel [Erik Marmor/Getty Images]

What happened on board Flydubai FZ1073?

At about 8:44 local time, nearly two and a half hours after takeoff from Dubai, the distress call came in.

The captain and his co-pilot were allegedly engaged in fighting as the aircraft swiftly lost altitude, dropping from 33,000 feet (10,000 metres) to 17,000 feet (5,000 metres) within a minute, according to Israeli officials.

Netanyahu said that one of the pilots had stabbed the other and then tried to crash the plane.

A wounded Machchhar somehow managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to gain entry and overpower the alleged attacker, Israeli media reported.

The crew available on the flight were able to take control of the aircraft – and safely land it an hour later in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

Both pilots were injured in the fighting and were being treated in Saudi Arabia.

Yaniv Hayun, one of the men who helped incapacitate the attacker on the Flydubai aircraft, holds an Israeli flag after arriving at the Ben Gurion International Airport, in Lod, near Tel Aviv, on September 30, 2026 [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

What we know about the pilot who allegedly attacked his colleague

Very little verified information has come through so far.

After initial treatment, he was taken into custody by authorities in Saudi Arabia, but has not been charged yet. No official confirmation has come out regarding his citizenship.

There is no information so far on his flying hours, qualifications or whether he had flown to Israel before on a Flydubai aeroplane, where he was reportedly employed less than a year ago.

While some Israeli officials rushed to call it a “jihadist attack,” Netanyahu has said that “it’s too early to say,” whether this was a targeted attack or one with an Iranian role. He also added that any motive behind the alleged attack was not clear.

“I think he’ll be taken to the Emirates, where he comes from, or at least where he left, where he flew off from, and we’ll be following and possibly also participating in this investigation,” Netanyahu told Fox News in an interview.

The initial statements from the airline and Saudi authorities say that investigations are continuing and people should refrain from speculation.

A Flydubai aircraft carrying passengers from Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, stands on the tarmac after landing at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, on September 30, 2026 [Abir Sultan/EPA]

How was the co-pilot cleared to fly?

Flydubai is a UAE operator, whose certification and operational oversight fall under the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA).

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency told Reuters that Flydubai’s certification and safety oversight rest with the GCAA. “This includes responsibility for ensuring that the operator meets the applicable requirements concerning its flight crews and their fitness to fly,” EASA said.

The standard GCAA regulatory framework requires a valid professional pilot’s licence, the appropriate aircraft type rating, a current Class 1 medical certificate and English language proficiency alongside required flight experience.

The Class 1 medical process covers physical and mental health; pilots with relevant psychiatric conditions, substance misuse, or other specified concerns can be referred for further assessment before being declared fit.

“Pilot vetting is very thorough, from security and financial checks to mental health evaluation,” said Saj Ahmad, the chief analyst at StrategicAero Research, a London-based aviation consultancy.

“But those checks are a single snapshot in time and will never uncover whether a person has issues that then manifest in the workplace or flight deck,” he told Al Jazeera.

“This is why it’s so hard to know what people think and what they may do if they feel a sense of some form of injustice,” Ahmad added.

Israeli media has pressed on with claims, quoting the Transport Minister Miri Regev, that an agreement with the UAE mandates that only pilots holding passports from countries with diplomatic relations with Israel may land in the country. Al Jazeera could not verify this claim.

Israel’s Ministry of Transport Security Department’s description of its responsibilities includes “security screening of foreign flights crossing/landing in Israel” and directing security arrangements for air transport services. It does not specify routine individual background vetting of commercial airline pilots or cabin crew.

Now, Israel says it would ramp up security checks on pilots flying into the country. “Every pilot that is going to be flying into Israel, we are going to know the pilots’ identities, know who they are, and do some type of security check,” Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister’s office, said.

Indian pilot Smit Machchhar smiles in an unidentified location in this undated handout image released on September 30, 2026 [Israel Foreign Ministry/Handout via Reuters]

What do we know about the Indian pilot?

Machchhar, hailed as a hero by prime ministers of Israel and India, hails from a suburb in Mumbai and currently lives in Dubai with his wife and two kids.

Currently, he is recovering in a hospital in Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk.

Machchhar managed to activate the release to open the cockpit door, according to Israeli officials, allowing passengers and crew to overpower the co-pilot.

Machchhar worked with Indian commercial airline SpiceJet for more than a decade before joining Flydubai in 2022, his LinkedIn profile says. He has logged nearly 9,750 flying hours over a career spanning about 15 years.

After school, he enrolled in a textile engineering course with the aim of continuing the family’s business before pursuing management studies at Mumbai’s Welingkar Institute of Management.

It was there, at an aviation seminar, that he discovered flying when he was about 19 years old.

Machchhar later trained in New Zealand before joining SpiceJet, where he spent 11 years. He has been with Flydubai for four years.

“Delay is not my problem. As long as you’re walking out of the aircraft is what I want,” Machchhar said in a podcast in 2025 on a YouTube channel. “When I get out of the cockpit or the aircraft, I don’t want the other guy to know that I’m a pilot,” he said.

“When I wear the uniform, then no nonsense and just do your job, finish the job. When you walk out of the cockpit, that’s it. Stop thinking about that. Someone else needs you now. The kids are there. They want to play with you,” he had said.

How rare is cockpit violence?

There have been few instances of deliberate violence inside flights.

The kind of “violence in the flight deck can vary, but often the strategy is to open the door so that other crew members can assist,” Ahmad of StrategicAero Research told Al Jazeera.

“Sadly, these real-time events are hard to predict and harder to bring under control. The Flydubai event yesterday was unique in that other flight crew were on hand to land the airplane,” he said, referring to crew who were reportedly flying as passengers before taking on the return flight as crew.

“It’s frightening to think of what the outcome would have been if those additional pilots were not there to take control,” Ahmad added.

Here are some instances:

Japan Airlines Flight 350, 1982: Captain Seiji Katagiri deliberately pushed the airplane into a dive and activated thrust reversers on approach to Tokyo. The first officer countered his control inputs while the flight engineer physically restrained the captain. The aircraft crashed short of Haneda, killing 24 of 174 people on board. Katagiri was later ruled not guilty by reason of insanity.

Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771, 1987: A disgruntled former employee, travelling as a passenger, shot his former supervisor and members of the flight crew. The aircraft subsequently entered a fatal dive. All 43 people on board died.

FedEx Flight 705, 1994: Off-duty FedEx employee Auburn Calloway, travelling in the cockpit jump seat, attacked the three-person flight crew with a hammer and other weapons in an attempt to seize the aircraft. The crew fought him and landed safely in Memphis.

Germanwings Flight 9525, 2015: First officer Andreas Lubitz locked the captain out of the cockpit and deliberately flew the A320 into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board. France’s BEA found that the medical-certification system failed to prevent a pilot experiencing a serious mental disorder from exercising his licence.

China Eastern Flight MU5735, 2022: The US National Transportation Safety Board data released this year shows both engine fuel switches were manually moved to CUTOFF before the Boeing 737-800’s fatal dive. But China has not published a final investigation establishing exactly who made the inputs or why. All 132 on board died.

Flydubai事件引发了以色列和民航业的诸多疑问。

工作人员在迪拜国际机场准备一架迪拜航空的航班。[图片：Jon Gambrell/AP Photo]

一架迪拜航空飞往特拉维夫的航班因飞行员斗殴而改道，引发了人们对飞行员审查程序和航空安全的质疑。

以色列总理内塔尼亚胡周三表示，被副驾驶刺伤的机长设法打开了驾驶舱门。他称赞这位印度籍机长斯密特·马赫查尔是“真正的英雄”，因为他阻止了一场“灾难性的空中事故”。

阿联酋已下令对该事件展开调查。阿联酋总检察长哈马德·赛义夫·沙姆西周四表示，调查小组将“收集信息和证据，以确定事件的真相、情况、细节和动机，并核实其与任何恐怖活动或目的的关联程度，或是否存在事先策划或指示”。

沙特阿拉伯尚未就此事发布最新消息。

目前，关于迪拜航空事件，疑问远多于答案。例如，涉嫌袭击者为何被允许飞行？我们对被刺伤的飞行员又了解多少？

迪拜航空派出第二架飞机前往沙特阿拉伯接回滞留乘客，并将他们送回以色列。[Erik Marmor/Getty Images]

Flydubai FZ1073航班上发生了什么？

当地时间大约 8 点 44 分，也就是从迪拜起飞近两个半小时后，遇险呼叫传来。

据以色列官员称，机长和副驾驶在飞机迅速下降高度的过程中发生争执，飞机在一分钟内从 33,000 英尺（10,000 米）下降到 17,000 英尺（5,000 米）。

内塔尼亚胡说，其中一名飞行员刺伤了另一名飞行员，然后试图坠毁飞机。

据以色列媒体报道，受伤的马赫哈尔设法打开了驾驶舱门，让乘客和机组人员得以进入并制服了这名袭击者。

机上机组人员接管了飞机，并在一个小时后安全降落在沙特阿拉伯塔布克。

两名飞行员在战斗中受伤，目前正在沙特阿拉伯接受治疗。

2026年9月30日，在特拉维夫附近的洛德市本古里安国际机场，参与制服迪拜航空飞机袭击者的其中一名男子亚尼夫·哈云手持以色列国旗。[Ammar Awad/路透社]

关于涉嫌袭击同事的飞行员，我们目前了解的情况

目前为止，经核实的信息非常少。

经过初步治疗后，他被沙特阿拉伯当局拘留，但尚未被起诉。关于他的国籍，目前还没有官方消息。

目前尚无关于他的飞行小时数、资格或他是否曾乘坐迪拜航空公司的飞机飞往以色列的信息，据报道，他不到一年前曾在迪拜航空公司工作。

尽管一些以色列官员急于将其称为“圣战袭击”，但内塔尼亚胡表示，“现在断定”这是否是一起有针对性的袭击或伊朗参与其中“还为时过早”。他还补充说，此次袭击的动机尚不明确。

内塔尼亚胡在接受福克斯新闻采访时表示：“我认为他将被带回他的祖国阿联酋，或者至少是他离开的地方，他从那里飞走的地方。我们将跟踪调查，并可能参与其中。”

航空公司和沙特当局的初步声明称，调查仍在进行中，民众应避免猜测。

2026年9月30日，一架载有乘客从沙特阿拉伯塔布克起飞的迪拜航空飞机降落在以色列特拉维夫附近的本古里安国际机场停机坪上。[Abir Sultan/EPA]

副驾驶是如何获得飞行许可的？

Flydubai 是一家阿联酋航空公司，其认证和运营监管由阿联酋民航总局 (GCAA) 负责。

欧洲航空安全局告诉路透社，迪拜航空的认证和安全监管由阿联酋民航总局负责。“这包括确保航空公司满足有关其机组人员及其适航性的适用要求，”欧洲航空安全局表示。

阿联酋民航总局 (GCAA) 的标准监管框架要求飞行员持有有效的专业飞行员执照、相应的飞机型号等级、有效的 1 级体检合格证和英语语言能力，以及必要的飞行经验。

1 级体检流程涵盖身体和心理健康；患有相关精神疾病、药物滥用或其他特定问题的飞行员，在被宣布合格之前，可能会被转介进行进一步评估。

“飞行员审查非常彻底，从安全和财务检查到心理健康评估，”总部位于伦敦的航空咨询公司 StrategicAero Research 的首席分析师 Saj Ahmad 说。

“但这些检查只是某一时刻的快照，永远无法发现一个人是否存在问题，这些问题随后会在工作场所或驾驶舱中显现出来，”他告诉半岛电视台。

“这就是为什么很难知道人们的想法，以及如果他们感到某种不公正待遇，他们会采取什么行动，”艾哈迈德补充道。

以色列媒体援引交通部长米里·雷格夫的话报道称，以色列与阿联酋达成的一项协议规定，只有持有与以色列建交国家护照的飞行员才能在阿联酋降落。半岛电视台无法核实这一说法。

以色列交通部安全部门对其职责的描述包括“对过境/降落以色列的外国航班进行安全检查”以及指导航空运输服务的安全安排。但该部门并未明确提及对商业航空公司飞行员或机组人员进行例行个人背景审查。

以色列方面表示，将加强对飞往该国的飞行员的安全检查。以色列总理办公室发言人多伦·斯皮尔曼表示：“对于每一位飞往以色列的飞行员，我们都会了解他们的身份，知道他们是谁，并进行某种形式的安全检查。”

这张未注明日期的照片于2026年9月30日发布，照片中印度飞行员斯米特·马赫查尔在某个地点面带微笑。[以色列外交部/路透社供图]

我们对这位印度飞行员了解多少？

马赫查尔被以色列和印度总理誉为英雄，他来自孟买郊区，目前与妻子和两个孩子居住在迪拜。

目前，他正在沙特阿拉伯塔布克的一家医院接受治疗。

据以色列官员称，马赫哈尔设法启动了驾驶舱门的释放装置，使乘客和机组人员得以制服副驾驶。

据其领英个人资料显示，马查尔在2022年加入迪拜航空之前，曾在印度商业航空公司香料航空（SpiceJet）工作十余年。在他约15年的职业生涯中，累计飞行时间近9750小时。

放学后，他报名参加了纺织工程课程，目的是继承家族生意，之后又在孟买的韦林卡尔管理学院攻读管理学。

大约 19 岁时，他参加一个航空研讨会，由此发现了飞行的乐趣。

马查尔后来在新西兰接受培训，之后加入香料航空，在那里工作了11年。他加入迪拜航空已有四年。

“延误不是我的问题。只要你能走出飞机，那就是我的目标，”马赫查尔在2025年YouTube频道的一期播客节目中说道。“当我走出驾驶舱或飞机时，我不想让对方知道我是飞行员，”他补充道。

“穿上制服，就别废话，专心做好你的工作，完成任务。走出驾驶舱，一切就结束了。别再想这些了。现在有人需要你。孩子们在那里，他们想和你一起玩，”他曾这样说过。

驾驶舱暴力事件有多罕见？

飞机上发生的蓄意暴力事件很少。

战略航空研究公司的艾哈迈德告诉半岛电视台：“驾驶舱内的暴力行为类型可能各不相同，但通常的策略是打开舱门，以便其他机组人员可以提供帮助。”

“遗憾的是，这些实时发生的事件难以预测，也更难控制。昨天迪拜航空的事件比较特殊，因为当时有其他机组人员在场协助降落飞机，”他说道，指的是据报道先以乘客身份乘坐该航班，之后又以机组人员身份执飞返程航班的机组人员。

“想想如果没有那些额外的飞行员接管控制权，后果将不堪设想，真是令人不寒而栗，”艾哈迈德补充道。

以下是一些例子：

1982年日本航空350号班机：机长片桐诚二在接近东京时故意将飞机俯冲并启动反推装置。副驾驶试图阻止他的操作，而飞行工程师则试图用身体制服机长。飞机在羽田机场附近坠毁，机上174人中有24人遇难。片桐后来因精神错乱而被判无罪。

1987年太平洋西南航空1771号航班：一名心怀不满的前雇员以乘客身份搭乘该航班，枪击了他的前任主管和机组人员。随后，飞机进入致命俯冲，机上43人全部遇难。

1994年联邦快递705号航班：休班的联邦快递员工奥本·卡洛韦（Auburn Calloway）坐在驾驶舱的折叠座椅上，用锤子和其他武器袭击了三名机组人员，企图劫持飞机。机组人员奋力反抗，最终安全降落在孟菲斯。

2015年德国之翼9525号航班空难：副驾驶安德烈亚斯·卢比茨将机长锁在驾驶舱外，蓄意驾驶A320客机撞向法国阿尔卑斯山，导致机上150人全部遇难。法国航空事故调查局（BEA）认定，医疗认证制度未能阻止一名患有严重精神障碍的飞行员继续执飞。

2022年中国东方航空MU5735航班：美国国家运输安全委员会今年公布的数据显示，在波音737-800客机坠毁前，两个发动机的燃油开关均被手动拨至“截止”位置。但中国尚未公布最终调查结果，以确定究竟是谁进行了这些操作以及操作原因。机上132人全部遇难。