The capture code was not transmitted by chance — the aviation expert about the conflict on the Flydubai flight

A fight between crew members during a flight is an extremely dangerous situation, it is the pilots who are responsible for controlling the aircraft, said aviation expert, founder of the flight safety and certification service Andrei Patrakov, commenting on the incident with the Boeing 737 Flydubai aircraft.

The specialist recalled that before admission to flights, pilots undergo a medical examination, including an assessment of their psychological state. In addition, there is a separate procedure for checking the psychological compatibility of crew members.

"The two best pilots can be put together, but if they are incompatible, then this cannot be done. Therefore, there is such a procedure, called Crew Resource Management — crew resource Management, where one of the approaches is the psychological compatibility of pilots," Channel Five quotes Patrakov.

The expert noted that cases of conflicts between pilots in the cockpit had already occurred in world practice, but usually such situations could be resolved without serious consequences.

"A fight in the cockpit is really a very dangerous phenomenon, because the pilots are the only ones who operate the aircraft professionally. When such fights happened, either air marshals intervened there, if a security officer was present on board, if he was not, flight attendants," the specialist said.

Patrakov drew attention to the fact that in such cases, the code of a possible hijacking of an aircraft was usually not transmitted. According to him, the use of the 7500 signal may indicate that the situation on board had a special character.

"Here, apparently, there really was some other precedent that some pilot wanted to try to hijack the plane, perhaps the fight was with him to prevent him from making this opportunity. That is, this code was sent here for a reason," the expert noted.

Earlier it was reported that after climbing about 9 thousand meters, one of the pilots could have sent the Boeing 737 into a sharp peak, as a result of which the plane was at an altitude of about 4.5 thousand meters. The co-pilot's attempt to prevent further development of the situation, according to preliminary data, led to a conflict between crew members.

During the flight, two signals were transmitted from the aircraft: 7700, used in emergency situations, and 7500, the international code for possible aircraft hijacking. There were about 180 passengers on board, including 27 minors.

After the incident, the plane changed its route and landed in Saudi Arabia. Israeli TV channel 12 earlier reported that there was also an additional team of pilots in civilian clothes on board, which could help stabilize the situation.

A Flydubai Boeing 737 passenger recorded the first minutes after the incident on board on video.

"We are now on board an aircraft that has undergone a hijacking attempt. We managed to neutralize the attackers, we are preparing to land. The place is unfamiliar to us, we do not know exactly where we will end up. Everyone on board is alive and well, only the pilot needs help," an eyewitness said, adding that the plane would land in Tabuk, somewhere in the region of Saudi Arabia.