A horrific mid-air catastrophe on a plane heading to Tel Aviv was averted in a stunning turn of events on Wednesday when passengers and crew bravely rushed into the cockpit and regained control of the aircraft.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a pilot stabbed his colleague on a Flydubai plane and tried to “sabotage the aircraft’s system.” The aircraft plunged thousands of feet in two minutes, causing panic and forcing the flight to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
While investigators are still probing the motive, Netanyahu said the suspect “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination” in an interview with Fox News on Thursday.
The other pilot, identified as Smit Machchhar from India, has been hailed as a hero as he fought back and “managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster,” Netanyahu told CNN’s Jim Sciutto. “What distinguishes this incident from the other tragic attacks was that this time, the good guys won,” Netanyahu said.
Flydubai flight FZ1073 departed Dubai at 6:05 a.m. local time (10:05 p.m. ET) and began flying west to its destination near Tel Aviv. About two hours after taking off, the aircraft began quickly losing altitude and turned sharply to the north, flight tracking data showed. It descended 17,400 feet in just under two minutes.
The flight issued a distress call at 8:31 a.m., minutes before it squawked code 7500 — the International Civil Aviation Organization code to signal an aircraft hijacking.
New video has emerged showing the dramatic moments as passengers and crew entered the cockpit and battled to take control of the Flydubai plane.
Several people can be seen crowded around the doorway to the cockpit, with one cabin crew member shouting at other passengers to sit down and calling for a doctor to help.
One person also calls out, “We need a pilot,” as cabin crew frantically work to unpack a first aid kit.
Passengers described chaotic scenes on board the plane as the plane nosedived.
“We just felt the plane drop completely and start spinning a little, and everyone was screaming, there were children crying,” passenger Mika Bauman told CNN. “I was just sure I was going to die,” she said.
Other passengers took it upon themselves to charge into the cockpit and fight the attacker.
Yaniv Hayoun recounted to Netanyahu how he put the alleged attacker in a chokehold and dragged him out of the cockpit with other passengers.
Hayoun said he then grabbed the plane’s controls to help bring it back under control, admitting his move was inspired by watching a TV show which reconstructs real-life air disasters.
“I watch Air Crash Investigation, Mr. Prime Minister — really. The plane started to level out a bit, and then the pilot told me he was taking over the controls from there,” Hayoun said.
Dr. Shota Musaev, a dentist on board, told CNN he tied the attacker up using headphone cords and plastic zipties. He then started tending to the wounded pilot.
Even after the attacker was restrained, passengers remained terrified.
“There was nothing but desert beneath us; we feared being taken to an enemy country or landing in the middle of the desert,” Assaf Rajuan told CNN. “We didn’t know who to trust.”
In another extraordinary turn of events, there were people on board the flight who knew how to fly a plane and were able to bring the aircraft safely down.
Netanyahu and Flydubai confirmed that reserve pilots who were in the passenger area managed to regain control of the aircraft. The flight was diverted to Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk Airport, where it touched down at 9:54 a.m.
David Soucie, a CNN aviation safety analyst, said it was fairly uncommon for additional on-duty pilots to be on flights “unless they are being repositioned for other flights.”
Video shared on social media and verified by CNN showed a gruesome scene onboard following the attack, where a seriously wounded pilot is seen lying on the floor of the aircraft, his pained face partially covered with a mask.
The man is seen clutching his torso with his bloodied hands. He seems in pain, but conscious. Several passengers are seen helping him and monitoring his vital signs.
Just next to him, guarded by several men, is another pilot — the man the flight’s passengers allege was the attacker. He too is wounded, lying on his side, his white shirt soaked with blood around his stomach.
Both the captain and co-pilot of the plane were taken to the hospital, Saudi Arabia’s leading aviation operator said.
The pilot who was stabbed on the Flydubai flight suffered “massive blood loss” and was “severely wounded,” Musaev, told CNN. “He was covered in cuts — his head, his hands — they were practically sliced open, almost severed in two.”
A local politician in Ghatkopar East in Mumbai, where Machchhar is from, told CNN that the pilot’s family members told him he was in a stable condition after undergoing a surgery at a hospital in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
The co-pilot and the Indian captain he is suspected of attacking, left for Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday morning with an Emirati security team after being medically cleared to travel, Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry said.
Authorities are yet to divulge the identity of the pilot who allegedly attacked Machchhar. Nor has there been any confirmation of his motive or of the weapon he used in the violent altercation, though Netanyahu suggested to Fox News this might have been a knife or an axe.
Netanyahu told CNN that the suspect was an Omani national who was being questioned in Saudi Arabia and would be “soon” transferred to the United Arab Emirates. Oman and Israel do not have formal diplomatic relations, and it is not yet clear how the Omani pilot would have obtained clearance to fly to Israel.
The passengers, who Netanyahu said were “almost all” Israeli, have since traveled to Israel on a substitute Flydubai plane that was sent to Saudi Arabia.
Prior to their arrival, at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport, the families of passengers anxiously waited for their loved ones, with some carrying balloons reading “welcome” and “it’s so good to have you back home.”
After landing in Israel, Flydubai passengers were directed to a “dedicated reception area” where they met with medical teams and underwent examinations, an Israel Airports Authority spokesperson said.
A 50-year-old male passenger was taken to hospital with an upper-body injury and is in “light condition,” according to the spokesperson.
Several Israeli officials commended the bravery of those on board the plane. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the incident ended in a “great miracle,” adding that Israel and the UAE will “investigate the incident in depth together.”
Four American citizens who also hold Israeli nationality were among the passengers on board, according to two US officials. There were also two Australian passengers, according to Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong.
Authorities continue to unpack the details around the harrowing incident, many of which remain murky.
A host of Israeli agencies, including Shin Bet, Mossad, the military and the country’s transportation ministry, are involved in the investigation, an Israeli official told CNN.
One of the main questions being looked into is why the flight crew included a pilot from a country with which Israel does not have diplomatic relations, the official said.
Israel enforces some of the strictest aviation security protocols in the world, after facing a history of hijackings and terminal attacks. Departing passengers are required to undergo pre-screening and questioning, in addition to multiple passport checks, advanced baggage scanning, and, sometimes, full-body screening.
Foreign airlines must obtain approval from Israel’s Aviation Security Operation Center before they can operate to and from the country’s airports.
An Israeli security official told CNN that Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, is also supposed to vet all airlines’ personnel flying into Israel from the UAE.
Investigators will likely explore the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder first, Marco Chan, a senior lecturer in aviation operations at London’s Kingston University, told CNN.
They will also interview the crew, the off-duty pilots and passengers, and determine how the cockpit door was opened, how the weapon came to be on board, and the pilot’s medical and training history, he said.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke to his UAE counterpart, Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, during which they agreed to cooperate against “extremist elements” threatening security, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said.
In the meantime, Flydubai temporarily suspended flights to and from Israel while an investigation continues, a spokesperson for the airline said later on Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump said he spoke to Netanyahu on Wednesday, calling the passengers’ efforts to subdue the attacker “the most amazing stuff.”
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said he is “deeply concerned” over the events, but “very relieved that the plane landed safely thanks to the actions of those on board.”
CNN’s Catherine Nicholls, Ivana Kottasová, Zeena Saifi, Dana Karni, Michael Rios, Hira Humayun, Jeremy Diamond, Adam Cancryn, Eyad Kourdi, Sophie Tanno, Billy Stockwell and Ayushi Shah contributed to this report.
Responses