New footage has emerged from inside the flydubai flight FZ1073, showing chaotic moments after the passengers and crew prevented the Omani co-pilot’s apparent terrorist intent to crash the plane flying from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Israel.
The video, which appeared to have been filmed on a phone camera from a seat near the cockpit, showed people shouting in a mixture of English and Hebrew, with one person saying, “He tried to crash the plane,” apparently referring to the co-pilot who stabbed flight captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian pilot.
The video then cuts to a shot after the plane has made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, with medics attending Machchhar on a raised platform outside the aircraft door. People inside the plane can be heard asking for the police and insisting the copilot must remain on board till the police come to take him away. “This is a terrorist, you understand, yes? We need police,” one of the Flydubai crew members can be heard saying in English. Another person added, “He cannot go anywhere. He is here with us. The new video came amid continued investigations into the co-pilot, who has been transferred from Saudi custody to the UAE.
Abu Dhabi has announced it was probing “whether the incident was linked to any terrorist activity or purpose or involved prior planning or direction.”
