Flydubai Captain Honored After Surviving Axe Attack

Nearly a month after being brutally attacked with an emergency axe by his co-pilot, Flydubai Captain Smit Machhar, 39, appeared in uniform at an honor ceremony in Abu Dhabi. His left arm was in a sling, and fresh scars on his head visibly demonstrated the severity of the injuries he survived. The photographs from the ceremony drew the attention of neurosurgeons globally and in Israel, who noted an additional danger he may have faced: massive bleeding during the repair of his skull fracture.

Machhar was attacked on September 30 on flight FZ1073 by First Officer Al-Hamami, a 29-year-old Omani citizen, who struck him with an axe and attempted to seize control of the aircraft. The plane lost approximately 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds, with screams heard from the cabin. Despite severe bleeding and blurred vision, Machhar managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to intervene. Israeli passengers subdued the attacker, tying him with headphone cords, while two other company pilots on board, including Hanson Stephen from Fiji, took control of the plane.

A dentist, Dr. Shota Museyev, who was a passenger, helped stem the bleeding. "There was heavy bleeding from his head and left hand," he stated at the time. He applied pressure to the wounds for about 45 minutes until the aircraft, diverted from its course, landed in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Machhar underwent emergency surgery there before being flown to a hospital in Abu Dhabi.

The ceremony, held recently, saw the President of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, present Machhar and the flight crew with the second-highest civilian honor in the country, the Zayed Order of the First Class. The awards were presented by the Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed. Among the honorees was pilot Hanson Stephen, who, along with another pilot, took control after part of the plane's tail was damaged and landed it safely.

During the ceremony, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed examined Machhar's head wounds and inquired about his recovery timeline. When Machhar estimated two months, the President jokingly offered to train him in combat after his recovery, an offer Machhar accepted with enthusiasm.

Neurosurgeons who reviewed the photos noted the complexity of Machhar's injuries. American neurosurgeon Dr. Sanat Dixit described the injury as a potentially life-threatening open, depressed skull fracture near the superior sagittal sinus, a major vein draining blood from the brain. He explained that penetrating injuries to this sinus can have complication and mortality rates exceeding 40% due to the risk of extreme blood loss, air embolism, or clot formation. Professor Rachel Grossman, Director of the Brain Tumor Center at Rambam Health Care Campus, concurred that the location near the midline venous sinus made treatment particularly complex, requiring extreme caution to avoid damaging the sinus. Dr. Aziz Mazareeb, Director of the Neurology Service at Clalit Health Services in the Northern District, added that while the bleeding was venous rather than arterial, it still posed a significant risk, and the depressed fracture could have caused pressure on brain tissue and blood vessels.