New Delhi, Oct. 18 -- Indian pilot Smit Machchhar initially thought something had broken off the roof of his aircraft and struck him on the back of his head before realising he was being attacked by his co-pilot aboard a flydubai flight travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv last month.

"I didn't know at that point what had hit me," Machchhar said in an interview with Sky News Arabia on Saturday, recounting how a routine flight turned into a struggle for survival.

He said the flight had proceeded normally, with all formalities completed and nothing unusual to suggest what was to follow. It was the first time he had flown with the co-pilot, he said.

About two hours into the flight, by his estimate, another captain who was scheduled to operat...