As scores of testimonies, photos and videos from Wednesday's bloody plane drama between Dubai and Israel become known, the picture is becoming clearer. By all accounts, a small handful of people on board managed to overpower the suspected perpetrator in the cockpit, gain control of the plunging passenger plane and make an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
One of them is the plumber Yaniv Hayoun, who on his return home to Tel Aviv got to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He tells him and the gathered press that a sudden dive and screams from business class made him feel uneasy.
Once at the nose of the plane, he had seen the suspected co-pilot in the cockpit force himself onto the dashboard, whereupon he pushed the door open and attacked the man with a stranglehold from behind.
- We pulled him out, it was a matter of seconds, the plane was still falling. I called out to a couple of other passengers who came to me and we got him to the ground. I jumped back into the cockpit and pulled the levers, says Yaniv Hayoun.
- You pulled the levers? Netanyahu asks.
- Yes, backwards. So, I'm watching "Haverikommissionen", answers Hayoun, referring to the Canadian documentary series that has also been broadcast under other titles since its inception in 2003.
That Yaniv Hayoun was even able to enter the cockpit was thanks to first pilot Smit Machchhar. He had first been badly stabbed by his colleague, but still managed to open the door so that Hayoun and two others could begin the rescue from disaster to emergency landing.
Hayoun got the plane in a horizontal position and as it happened there were two other flight crew members on board who were able to redirect the aircraft and finally land in Tabuk. Among the 174 passengers was also dentist Shota Musaev who managed to treat the injured Machchhar whose condition is now described as stable in a Saudi hospital.
- A true hero, Netanyahu writes on X about Machchhar.
Flydubai's Boeing 737 Max 8 took off as FZ1073 from Dubai at 5.05am, Swedish time, towards Tel Aviv. After just over two hours of flight, sudden and strong movements in altitude were recorded - which most rapidly plunged the plane at 566 kilometers per hour from nearly 10,400 to just under 4,300 meters above ground.
The aircraft is then seen making a sharp hairpin turn. During the same dramatic moment, in the border area between Jordan and Saudi Arabia, the alarm is sounded for "general emergency" and "illegal disturbance".
FZ1073 never took off again to planned cruise altitude, possibly due to damage. The spontaneously jumped pilots managed to make contact with the airport in Tabuk and land there at 8.58. Smit Machchhar is being treated in a Saudi hospital and the suspected perpetrator is being questioned by police before he is likely to be extradited to the United Arab Emirates.
Several Israeli representatives were quick to describe the incident as a terrorist crime with a jihadist motive, but it is still unclear. Netanyahu tells US CBS evening news that he doesn't even think it was a hijacking: "I don't think it was a hijacking. It appears to be a suicide attempt just from what this hero, Yaniv, has described."
