FlyDubai cockpit incident turns focus to crew-related hijackings

The pilot of the FlyDubai flight is suspected of having stabbed his copilot midflight in an apparent attempt to crash the plane. The incident has turned focus to similar incidents in the past, where deliberate crashes or near crashes have been instigated by on or off-duty crew.

The FlyDubai incident is thought to have been instigated by the pilot flying the plane. © Martin Meissner, AP/ Illustration picture

A pilot on a plane travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv stabbed the other pilot and then apparently tried to crash the aircraft Wednesday before being subdued by passengers and crew.

The Boeing 737 made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia , where the unnamed pilot was detained, but not before an abrupt descent prompted Israel to scramble warplanes over concerns of a possible hijacking .

An off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot tried to cut the engines of a Horizon Air jet travelling from Everett, Washington, to San Francisco while riding in an extra seat in the cockpit. The plane was diverted and landed in Portland with more than 80 people. Joseph Emerson told police he was despondent over a friend’s recent death, had taken psychedelic mushrooms and hadn’t slept in days.

A China Eastern Airlines flight from Kunming in southwest China to Guangzhou, near Hong Kong, slammed into a mountain, killing all 132 people aboard. Chinese authorities have yet to release their final investigative report, but data released by American investigators earlier this year suggests the jet’s engines were deliberately shut off and there was a cockpit struggle before the plane nose-dived.

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