‘I Was Sure I Was Going to Die’: Inside the Flydubai Flight Where Passengers Fought Off a Terrifying Mid-Air Attack

A horrific mid-air catastrophe was averted on Wednesday when passengers and crew aboard a Flydubai flight bound for Tel Aviv bravely rushed into the cockpit and regained control of the aircraft after a pilot allegedly stabbed his colleague and attempted to sabotage the plane’s systems. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the pilot stabbed his fellow pilot and tried to “sabotage the aircraft’s system,” plunging the aircraft thousands of feet in just two minutes and causing panic on board. The flight, FZ1073, departed Dubai at 6:05 a.m. local time and began losing altitude about two hours after takeoff, descending 17,400 feet in just under two minutes before issuing a distress call and squawking code 7500—the international signal for a hijacking. Passengers described chaotic scenes 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.

In a stunning turn of events, passengers took it upon themselves to charge into the cockpit and fight the attacker. Yaniv Hayoun recounted how he put the alleged attacker in a chokehold and dragged him out of the cockpit with other passengers, then grabbed the plane’s controls to help bring it back under control. Dr. Shota Musaev, a dentist on board, told CNN he tied the attacker up using headphone cords and plastic zipties before tending to the wounded pilot. The stabbed pilot, identified as Smit Machchhar from India, fought back and “managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster,” Netanyahu said. “What distinguishes this incident from the other tragic attacks was at this time, the good guys won.” 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, reserve pilots who were among the passengers managed to regain control of the aircraft and divert it to Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk Airport, where it landed safely at 9:54 a.m. Netanyahu praised Captain Machchhar as a “true hero” who demonstrated “extraordinary bravery” and saved the lives of 174 people. “Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker—preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster,” he wrote on X. The alleged attacker, described by an Israeli official as an Omani national, has been detained and is being questioned by Saudi authorities. Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the incident a “great miracle,” and a host of Israeli agencies, including Shin Bet, Mossad, and the military, are investigating. As the passengers reunited with their families at Ben Gurion Airport, the full weight of what could have been—and what was miraculously prevented—hung heavy in the air. Their story is a powerful reminder of the courage that emerges in the darkest moments and the thin line between tragedy and triumph.

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