Captain from terror flight in moving hospital interview: "I will return to flying soon"

Captain Sami Machchar, who was seriously injured in the terror flight of 'Fly Dubai', gives an interview from the hospital and recounts the attack by the co-pilot from Oman. He describes the struggle while losing blood and consciousness, and the emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. Despite his injuries, he declares: 'I will return to flying soon.'

Captain Sami Machchar, the pilot of the terror flight of 'Fly Dubai', gives an interview from his hospital bed and recounts the moments of horror in the cockpit. In an interview with The National editor Mina Al-Oraibi, he describes the attack by the co-pilot, the terrorist from Oman, who attacked him with an emergency axe. Machchar was seriously injured in his neck and hands, lost a lot of blood and his consciousness came and went, but he fought the attacker and opened the cockpit door, allowing crew and passengers to subdue the assailant. The plane, flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Ben Gurion Airport, rapidly lost altitude and deviated from its course. Two pilots who were on the plane as passengers helped stabilize it, and it made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Despite his injuries, Machchar declares: 'I will return to flying soon.' The passengers, most of them Israelis, were secured by Saudi forces and returned to Israel.