US House passes resolution honouring Indian flydubai pilot Smit Machchhar, condemns ‘act of terrorism’
The US House of Representatives have passed a resolution honouring Indian flydubai pilot Smit Machchhar who was stabbed by his Omani co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami on September 30.The resolution introduced as “Honoring Captain Smit Machchhar and the crew and passengers of Flydubai Flight 1073, and condemning the attempted terrorist attack on that flight” by Josh Gottheimer, Don Bacon and Michael McCaul, described the incident and hailed Machchhar.“On September 30, 2026, Flydubai Flight 1073 departed Dubai International Airport for Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, carrying approximately 174 passengers, the majority of them Israeli citizens, including 4 United States citizens and 27 children,” it stated.“Whereas, midway through the flight, the first officer attacked the captain on the flight deck with the aircraft’s emergency crash axe and attempted to seize the flight controls, and the aircraft lost more than 14,000 feet of altitude in under 30 seconds,” it desribed the incident. Whereas Captain Smit Machchhar, a citizen of India, fought off the attack and, despite grave injuries, used his remaining strength to unlock the cockpit door so that off-duty pilots could enter and land the aircraft and so that crew and passengers could restrain the first officer; Whereas the aircraft landed safely at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia with all passengers and crew accounted for; and Whereas, on October 3, 2026, the Attorney General of the United Arab Emirates announced that the Emirati investigation had determined that the first officer attempted to carry out a terrorist act,” it added.Then it went to resolve as follows:
- Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
- (1) honors Captain Smit Machchhar for extraordinary courage in protecting every soul aboard his aircraft;
- (2) commends the
heroic actions of the off-duty pilots, cabin crew, and passengers who secured the flight deck and brought the aircraft safely down; - (3) wishes Captain Machchhar and all who were injured a full recovery;
- (4) condemns the attack on Flydubai Flight 1073 as an
act of terrorism and as an attack on the safety of international civil aviation; and - (5) calls for a full and expeditious investigation by the Governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and for the United States and Israel to be kept fully informed.
On September 30, Flydubai Flight FZ1073, carrying more than 170 passengers and crew from Dubai to Tel Aviv, was forced into an emergency diversion after the co-pilot attacked Captain Smit Machchhar in the cockpit with a crash axe and attempted to take control of the aircraft.The plane rapidly lost altitude before Machchhar, despite suffering serious injuries, managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to overpower the attacker; two off-duty pilots then helped land the aircraft safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.The UAE subsequently launched an investigation, and on October 3 its Attorney General said the probe had found that the co-pilot attempted to carry out a terrorist act. Investigators are continuing to examine the circumstances, motive, possible links and physical and digital evidence, with authorities in other countries also looking into the incident.
