A HEROIC dentist who rushed to the cockpit to wrestle with an alleged extremist hijacker claims the suspected terrorist begged to be killed.
Newly released footage from on board the plane shows the alleged knifeman with his hands and feet tied up surrounded by brave passengers while covered in blood.
His white top stained red and blood appearing to be pouring down the side of his head, the Omani co-pilot was seen bound as he waited for Saudi police to arrest him.
Fellow passengers can be heard saying in the video: “He can’t go outside. He can’t go anywhere. He’s been like this for one hour [and can do] five minutes more.
“We need only the police. Only police.”
Shota Musaev, 47, was among the men who managed to subdue the attacker and drag him off the plane’s captain Smit Machchhar during the flight.
Machchhar was left bloodied after being knifed in the cockpit of the Boeing 737.
Israeli officials claim he was attacked by his unidentified co-pilot who was trying to crash the plane and kill everyone on board in a 9/11-style tragedy.
Detailing the terrifying plane journey, Musaev told the Daily Mail: “Everything was going smoothly when, suddenly, we felt the aircraft drop sharply.
“Exactly half a minute later, we heard noises from the front: shouting, and a woman screaming, ‘Knife! Knife!’.”
Brave Musaev, of Jewish Georgian descent, said he quickly jumped out of his seat as he believed he was witnessing a terror attack.
Several people had already made it to the cockpit by the time Musaev arrived as they all helped to drag the knifeman off captain Machchhar.
Musaev said they grabbed him by the neck before tying him up by binding his hands and feet.
At this point, Musaev claims the alleged hijacker started begging: “Kill me.”
The unidentified co-pilot is still being quizzed by anti-terror cops after steering the flydubai jet, which was bound for Tel Aviv from Dubai early on Wednesday morning, into a terrifying 700mph nosedive.
Israel fears he may have been a religious extremist who underwent “Islamist radical indoctrination”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the “heroes” on board the flydubai plane for their intervention.
He told Fox News on Thursday: “We could be sitting today in a 9/11 tragedy, with bodies scattered in the desert.”
Machchhar’s current condition is stable after he was rushed to hospital when passengers with flight experience managed to help land the aircraft in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
Netanyahu gave a brief update saying he was stabbed in the head and that his arm was “basically split in two”.
A heavily bandaged Machchhar broke his silence today as he said he “wasn’t going to let others die” as he spoke out from a hospital bed.
With his head wrapped up in bandages, Machchhar said: “I was lying on the floor injured but I told myself to go for one last push to open the door from inside.
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/17087846/hijacker-begged-kill-pilot-israel/