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Flydubai captain on the cockpit battle to save his plane
LongNews & Politics
Published Oct 17, 2026
Views
3M
Likes
28K
Speed /h
49K
+24h
+916K
Early catch
Updated 05:10 AMBeat 90% of videos its age, 28 h after upload.
- Vs usual
- 3680×
- Views/h now
- 20K
- Channel size
- 2K
Black: this video’s views at each read. Shaded: the median to the top 10% (the board’s reach bar) of all videos of its format at the same age; dashed: their top 1%.
Views over time
Views gained each hour, UTC- Views
- 3M
- Best hour
- +98.9K
- At 24 hours
- 1.3M
- At 7 days
- –
47 of 47 hours read. A gap is an hour we didn’t read close enough to say, not an hour without views.
viralshooter analytics
Our calculations on YouTube API data. Not YouTube metrics.
Position
- Speed percentile
- 88 / 100
- Category percentile
- 100 / 100
- ×base
- ×2k
- Channel typical
- 2K · median
Dynamics
- Phase
- fading
- Acceleration
- 0.47×
- Momentum
- ×561.65
- Decay
- 0.53
- Speed half-life
- 7d
Engagement
- Like rate
- 0.93%
- Comments per 1k views
- 1.30
- Engagement rate
- 1.06%
- Views per subscriber
- 4.10×
- Crossed a language border
- No
◆ Calculated by viralshooter from YouTube API data. Not YouTube metrics and not endorsed by YouTube.
| Region | Chart | Best rank | First seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Arab Emirates | Category chart | #9 | Oct 19 |
| Singapore | Category chart | #12 | Oct 19 |
| New Zealand | Category chart | #27 | Oct 19 |
| Australia | Category chart | #46 | Oct 19 |
| Canada | Category chart | #113 | Oct 18 |
| United States | Category chart | #173 | Oct 18 |
3d
From the YouTube record
Fields of the video as the YouTube API returns them.
- Published
- Oct 17, 2026, 5:00 PM
- Duration
- 28:10
- Category
- News & Politics
- Audio language
- English (en)
- Title language
- English (en)
- Captions
- No
- Definition
- HD
- Format
- 2D
- License
- Standard YouTube
- Licensed content
- Yes
- Embeddable
- Yes
- Made for kids
- No
- Age-restricted
- No
- Paid promotion
- No
- Public stats
- No
Topics
- Society
Title and description in 21 languages
- Arabic
- Bangla
- English
- Hindi
- Indonesian
- Italian
- Hebrew
- Japanese
- Korean
- Malayalam
- Punjabi
- Polish
- Russian
- Tamil
- Telugu
- Ukrainian
- German
- Spanish
- French
- Dutch
- Portuguese
Tags (9)
- The National
- UAE
- Abu Dhabi
- The National UAE
- Dubai
- Middle East
- flydubai
- smit machchhar interview
- flydubai pilot interview
Description
Flydubai captain Smit Machchhar has spoken of the moment his co-pilot repeatedly struck him with an axe before sending the Boeing 737 plunging towards the Arabian desert, with the intention of killing 172 people on board. In a world exclusive interview with The National from his hospital bed in Abu Dhabi, Capt Machchhar said the first officer sitting next to him for two hours had shown no sign of what Emirati prosecutors say was a “premeditated terrorist plot” to hijack the aircraft. Flydubai Flight 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv plunged 17,000ft in less than a minute when the first officer attacked Capt Machchhar and seized control of the plane. All of the 172 passengers and crew on board the September 30 flight survived. Capt Machchhar has been hailed as a hero for getting the cockpit door, locked from the inside, open and allowing the attack to be foiled. The first officer is being detained in the UAE and faces terrorism charges. The statements made in this interview reflect the interviewee’s recollection of events, based on his personal experience and his perception of them at the time they occurred. Chapters 00:34 - Meet the pilot: Smit Machchhar 02:45 - The attack and fight to survive 10:53 - Engines fail as plane dives 14:05 - Rescue, recovery and the UAE as home 19:03 - Who landed the plane? 23:21 - Recovery, flying and safety lessons 26:38 - Family reunion and final thoughts All the latest news: https://www.thenationalnews.com Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNationalNews Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/TheNationalNews Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenationalnews.com/ Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thenationalnewsShow all
Flydubai captain Smit Machchhar has spoken of the moment his co-pilot repeatedly struck him with an axe before sending the Boeing 737 plunging towards the Arabian desert, with the intention of killing 172 people on board. In a world exclusive interview with The National from his hospital bed in Abu Dhabi, Capt Machchhar said the first officer sitting next to him for two hours had shown no sign of what Emirati prosecutors say was a “premeditated terrorist plot” to hijack the aircraft. Flydubai Flight 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv plunged 17,000ft in less than a minute when the first officer attacked Capt Machchhar and seized control of the plane. All of the 172 passengers and crew on board the September 30 flight survived. Capt Machchhar has been hailed as a hero for getting the cockpit door, locked from the inside, open and allowing the attack to be foiled. The first officer is being detained in the UAE and faces terrorism charges. The statements made in this interview reflect the interviewee’s recollection of events, based on his personal experience and his perception of them at the time they occurred. Chapters 00:34 - Meet the pilot: Smit Machchhar 02:45 - The attack and fight to survive 10:53 - Engines fail as plane dives 14:05 - Rescue, recovery and the UAE as home 19:03 - Who landed the plane? 23:21 - Recovery, flying and safety lessons 26:38 - Family reunion and final thoughts All the latest news: https://www.thenationalnews.com Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNationalNews Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/TheNationalNews Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenationalnews.com/ Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thenationalnews
◆ Calculated by viralshooter · all other figures from the YouTube API