Inside the most secure space on an aircraft, the threat came from within. On a flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv, Captain Smit Machchhar was stabbed repeatedly by his own co-pilot, an Omani national who, according to Israeli officials, intended to seize the controls and crash the plane with 174 passengers on board.
Bleeding heavily, Machchhar fought back, sent out emergency signals and, despite his injuries, opened the cockpit door. Passengers rushed in and overpowered the attacker. The aircraft dropped 17,000 feet in just two minutes before disaster was averted.
The Indian pilot is now being hailed as a hero worldwide, but the incident raises troubling questions. How did a weapon end up in the co-pilot’s hands? Could the attack have been prevented? And has the reinforced cockpit door, designed after 9/11 to keep threats out, become a trap when the danger is already inside?
On Firstpost POV, Shubhangi Sharma speaks to Marco Chan, former pilot and Senior Lecturer in Aviation Operations at Kingston University.
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