What are the five questions asked regarding the Flydubai attack? | Aviation news

A co-pilot attack on the pilot during a Flydubai flight has raised many questions regarding aviation safety, and some of the official versions of the incident have been scrutinized by online commentators and aviation enthusiasts.

About two and a half hours after flight FZ1073 departed from Dubai International Airport on Wednesday, it began a steep descent before finally making an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

According to media reports, the co-pilot allegedly attacked Captain Smit Machchhar. The passengers managed to overpower the co-pilot, identified by media as Hamam al-Hammami, after Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door during the attack, which the UAE Attorney General said was carried out with the cockpit axe.

As investigators continue to work to establish a motive for the attack, several questions have been raised about the incident more generally on social media.

Here are five questions that are asked:

Why was al-Hammami allowed to fly even though he had been flagged for security reasons?

Al-Hammami was identified as an Omani national, according to media reports.

The Wall Street Journal on Friday cited anonymous sources saying Omani authorities had previously blocked the suspect from flying into the country due to concerns about his ideological views.

On Saturday, CNN reported, citing a regional diplomatic source, that the co-pilot was also removed from flight training for similar reasons and was later reassigned to another position.

He added, citing two sources familiar with the matter, that the pilot was fired from his job at Oman’s national airline last year over concerns about his views.

It remains unclear how al-Hammami managed to obtain the Flydubai route despite these security concerns.

The possibility of a plumber stabilizing the plane before the reserve pilots intervene

Reports revealed that Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door while covered in blood, allowing passengers to overpower the co-pilot.

One of those who subdued al-Hammami was Yaniv Hayoun, whom Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a plumber.

In a video with Netanyahu, who met him at the airport, Hayoun, 50, was asked how he knew what to do at the controls of the plane before another pilot took over. He said: “I’m watching Air Crash Investigation, Prime Minister. »

“I jumped back, grabbed the controls and started pulling the handles,” as he had seen on the Canadian investigative show, in which experts analyze plane crashes.

People on social media wondered how a plumber could have handled a plane in flight.

No massive injuries reported despite falling 5,180 meters

According to flight tracking site Flightradar24, the Flydubai plane descended rapidly around two and a half hours after takeoff, falling more than 5,180 meters (17,000 feet) in less than two minutes.

Although the mid-air drop caused mass panic among passengers, no one was reported injured, according to publicly available information about the incident. An Air India flight that plunged 90 meters (300 feet) during turbulence in August injured at least 17 passengers.

A flight instructor, who recreated the Flydubai plane’s near-vertical dive in a simulator, said the plane would have exceeded its maximum structural speed and anything unsecured would have flown throughout the cabin during the negative G forces of the recovery.

Why was the co-pilot allowed to fly even though he was an Omani national?

Israel does not have formal diplomatic relations with Oman, and Netanyahu has previously said those countries are generally not allowed to operate flights to Israel.

On Friday, Netanyahu said Israel was investigating whether the co-pilot acted under anyone’s direction, warning that anyone involved would pay a “heavy price.”

On Saturday, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that government officials had received in advance the list of crew members and passengers who were on board the flight, including the Omani co-pilot.

Security sources told Haaretz that the government agencies responsible for monitoring and controlling foreign crews landing in Israel are the security department of the Ministry of Transportation and Road Safety and the Mossad security agency.

The co-pilot prayed before the attack

According to the Times of Israel, Machchhar spoke with Netanyahu on Saturday. He told the prime minister that al-Hammami had asked to pray before the attack. Four or five minutes later, Machchhar received “a big blow” to the back of the head, he said.

The flight took off from the United Arab Emirates at 7:05 a.m. (03:05 GMT). The attack reportedly took place around two and a half hours later (05:35 GMT).

The pre-dawn prayer time in the Emirates on Wednesday was 04:51 (12:51 GMT), which would mean that al-Hammami prayer did not correspond to Islamic prayer times.

However, al-Hammami could also have performed a different personal prayer before the attack.