The flydubai case has taken another turn, with two more pilots of the same airline getting arrested in Dubai on suspicion of planning a terror attack. Notably, both have a history of flying to Israel over the past few years. The arrest is raising alarms, with more than one co-pilot being involved in anti-Israel activities.
Two flydubai employees were picked up by police last Saturday. According to Adhadhu, a Maldivian news outlet, the Maldivian Embassy in the UAE has now told their families that the pilots are in custody.
As per the reports, they are the most recent recruits among the six Maldivian pilots currently at flydubai. Reports say they had worked alongside Hamam al-Hammami, the Omani co-pilot accused of trying to crash a plane on 30 September.
Also Read | Flydubai Attack: PM Netanyahu invites pilot Smit Machchhar to Israel, calls him ‘hero of entire world’
However, there has been no official word on the arrest so far. Neither the President’s Office Spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef nor the Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson has said anything publicly, and the two pilots have not been charged in public.
What was the flydubai incident?
The case against Al-Hammami centres on flydubai flight FZ1073, which was flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv. He is alleged to have gone at the captain, Smit Machchhar, with an axe and tried to take over the plane. The airline’s own word for it was an ‘altercation’ on the flight deck.
According to reports, Machchhar, who is Indian, managed to beat back the attack and get the cockpit door open. An Israeli passenger then reportedly stepped in and helped bring the situation under control. The airline says the flight was diverted and touched down safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Captain Machchhar has more than 13 years of flying experience on Boeing 737 aircraft and has been with flydubai since 2022. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Captain Smit Machchhar is a HERO”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called him a “true hero” who saved 174 lives. India’s embassy in the UAE later said he was recovering well in a hospital there, and the Indian ambassador met his family.
Assaf, a passenger on the flight, has given a very different picture of what the crew did. He says they tried to loosen the restraints on the accused man and told passengers to stop filming. He also claims they tried to place a pill, which no one could identify, in the injured captain’s mouth.
His testimony further claims the flight had been arranged to be staffed only by male flight attendants. That has led to the suggestion that the accused may have had people inside the crew ready to help him.
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