From Shyam Bhatia
London. The attempted hijacking of a flydubai aircraft bound for Tel Aviv has acquired dimensions far beyond the extraordinary struggle in its cockpit. What initially appeared to be a murderous attempt by a co-pilot to seize control of a passenger aircraft has developed into an international investigation involving the UAE, Israel, US, Oman and Saudi Arabia, with questions now being raised about the possibility of outside assistance.
The central figure in this horrible live story of aviation crime is the 29-year-old Omani national Hammam al-Hammami, who attacked his Flight Commander, Capt Smit Machchhar, with the axe kept in the cockpit of every airliner, should there be any emergency like an air crash and the doors have to be opened with force.
flydubai flight FZ1073 had taken off from Dubai for Tel Aviv, and during the flight, as per cockpit records, Hammami made several suggestions to Capt Smit to go out of the cockpit, even to get him a glass of water. Capt Smit, an Indian national based in Dubai as the airline crew, smelled a rat, and even got himself a urination bag rather than going to the toilet.
Hammami finally attacked Capt Smit with the axe. The intent was to kill, but the brave Flight Commander fought back valiantly, and despite the serious, deep wounds on his head, managed to open the cockpit door.
Captain Smit, The Angel in the Cockpit
With his presence of mind, the brave Capt Smit obviously prevented a huge tragedy, like the 9/11 in 2001 in which a set of rabidal terrorists crashed passenger jets into New York’s Twin Towers at the World Trade Center.
Capt Smit was able to press the hijack alert button, although nobody anywhere would have even dreamt that the terrorist involved was his own rabid copilot. And when Cap Smit finally, and fortunately, managed to open the difficult-to-unlock the Cockpit door, the Boeing 737 was already on a nosedive, minutes or seconds away from crashing into the ground.
UAE President Shailh Mohammed bin Zayed visited him in the hospital, affectionately hugged him, examined his wounds, and told him “UAE Is Your Home.” In a light hearted chat, he praised his fighting spirit, and offered to personally train him in fighting harder once he has recovered.
An Indian from Mumbai, Capt Smit has drawn worldwide applause, from Prime Minister Narendra Modi – who has spoken to him, US President Donald Trump, besides Pesident Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Ruler of Dubai and UAE Prime Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and from everyone everywhere.
Another Miracle, Another Angel
There was an Israeli plumber on board, Yaniv Hayoun, as a passenger. As the aircraft was fast going down, he rushed in the cockpit the moment the door was opened, occupied the copilot’s chair just as the rabid was dragged out, took charge of the highly sophisticated Boeing 737 Max 8’s controls and pulled the yoke up, towards himself, to level and recover the plane from its nosedive.
The plumber, another hero in this live saga, had never ever been in any cockpit, but had seen in films how pilots take off and how they use the yoke to fly a plane and take it to the skies.
Still Another Miracle
Fortunately, there were two other pilots on board, to take charge of the flight after it would have landed in Tel Aviv.
Pilots Henson Steven and Rowan Tooth assumed instantly command, and ALL WERE THEN SAFE AND SMLES.
Time to use Rabid and Rabidal, not radical, to describe Terrorists
Whatever Hammami’s views, they were quite rabid, and to lead innocent people to murder, cannot be rationalised as Radical.
My friend and colleague Gulshan Luthra, editor of India Strategic and an old Middle East journalist, says: “It’s time terrorism is not accepted as Radical, but as Rabidal. The word doesn’t yet exist in the dictionary, but it’s time Rabids and Rabidal are accepted and used to describe murderers and terrorists.”
Hammami’s background
Investigations revealed so far have identified him as an Omani national, with an Omani father and a Syrian mother. He was born though in the UAE.
Citizens of UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait move feely within these states, thanks to the agreement between them as members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). All these countries have now initiated measures to impose some checks on cross-border movements and background checks are being conducted to look for any terrorists and their associates in coordination with global security agencies.
