Flight 1073 takes off from Dubai

Flydubai flight 1073 left Dubai for Tel Aviv on September thirtieth at three oh five am local time, carrying more than one hundred seventy passengers. The planned journey was three hours and thirty five minutes.

Co-pilot attacks pilot with crash axe

At five twenty one am, the unnamed Omani co-pilot attacked pilot Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, with a crash axe. Machchhar suffered cuts to his hands and head but remained conscious and in control.

Plane plummets fourteen thousand feet

The aircraft went into a steep dive, dropping more than fourteen thousand feet in thirty seconds. Passengers were flung from their seats as the plane lost altitude rapidly over the Indian Ocean.

Machchhar sends three emergency alerts

Despite bleeding profusely, Machchhar sent a seven seven zero zero alarm for general emergency, then a seven five zero zero for unlawful interference, then another seven seven zero zero. He alerted ground control to the crisis unfolding.

Pilot escapes cockpit, fight continues

Machchhar unlatched and opened the locked cockpit door, tumbling into the galley while still wrestling with his attacker. Two passengers and one flight crew member subdued the co-pilot and bound his hands with passenger headphone cables.

Reserve pilots land plane safely

Two reserve pilots aboard the flight raced to the cockpit and took control. They landed the plane safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, preventing a catastrophe that could have killed all one hundred seventy passengers.

Netanyahu suggests possible Iran link

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News it was too soon to know if the co-pilot was acting with Iran, but said he obviously hated Israelis because he was going to kill about one hundred seventy of them.

“he obviously hated Israelis because he was going to kill about 170 of them on the plane, killing himself too.”

Crew screening varies by country

Pilots and crew go through a crew member access point based largely on trust, not the same security screening as passengers. Mental health screening operates on an honor system with only a questionnaire asking if pilots feel mentally stable.

“A large part of this is based on trust. They have access to the airplane and if they wanted to sabotage it, they probably could.”

Locked cockpit doors create new risks

Post-nine eleven cockpit doors prevent hijackers from outside but create danger when the threat comes from inside. Jeff Price notes the doctrine of unintended consequences, saying security measures solved one problem while creating another.

“Everything we did was to try and prevent access to the flight deck, which doesn't do a whole lot of good when the problem is coming from inside the house.”

Germanwings crash shows precedent

On March twenty fourth, twenty fifteen, Germanwings Flight nine five two five crashed in the French Alps when the co-pilot seized the plane while the pilot was away, killing one hundred fifty people. Price says such incidents have almost never happened but have happened.

“It has almost never happened, but it has happened.”

Risk-reward balance remains unresolved

The danger of a mutinous crew member commandeering a plane is less than the reward of preventing hijackers, but the risk of such an incident ending catastrophically is decidedly nonzero. Aviation security faces an ongoing dilemma.