Passengers subdue pilot after cockpit stabbing on Flydubai flight

Passengers on a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv subdued a pilot who stabbed the other pilot and appeared to be trying to disable the aircraft, according to accounts given after the plane made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. The flight later reached Israel on a replacement aircraft.

The Boeing 737 Max 8 dropped 17,000 feet (5,200 meters) in less than two minutes, the BBC reported. Passenger Yaniv Hayun said he knew something was wrong when the plane suddenly descended. “Someone screamed… the light went out,” he said in a video posted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hayun said he and other passengers struggled to open the cockpit door because the wounded pilot was close to it. The pilot managed to open the door before collapsing, Hayun said. Inside, Hayun saw the attacker between the seats, “trying to destroy the instruments in order to…disable the plane.”

“I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold, and pulled him – first and foremost – outside,” Hayun said. Other passengers helped pin the man down. Hayun said he returned to the cockpit and pulled the controls until the aircraft began to level out. Asked by Netanyahu whether he knew what he was doing, Hayun replied: “I watch Air Crash Investigation, Mr Prime Minister.” Another pilot then took control, he said.

Passenger Zvika Meness told Israeli public broadcaster Kan that he helped restrain the attacker with zip ties and headphones. Accounts reported by CBS News and the BBC said a pilot who had been traveling in the passenger cabin helped bring the plane safely to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. CBS described that crew member as off duty, while the BBC reported Hayun’s account that two on-duty pilots had been in the cabin.

Passengers elsewhere on the aircraft initially thought the violent movements were turbulence. “I would say much worse than a free-fall,” Ron Levi told CBS News. He said he held hands with his family and told them he loved them as the plane lurched. Adam Polo, traveling with his wife and two young children, said he later saw a passenger emerge from the cockpit covered in blood.

The wounded pilot, Indian national Captain Smit Machchhar, was taken to a hospital and was in stable condition, according to the Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia. Netanyahu called him a “true hero” and praised the passengers who intervened. The suspected attacker was arrested and is being questioned by Saudi authorities.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called the incident an “attempted jihadist terror attack,” but no official motive has been announced. An Israeli security official told CBS News that Israel was investigating whether the pilot intended a Sept. 11-style attack and whether he acted alone. Two U.S. officials told CBS that four passengers held dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship.

Passengers later arrived at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport aboard another Flydubai aircraft, where people greeted them with music, singing and Israeli flags. “Thank God I’m alive,” passenger Haim Lazarovich told journalists.