Roughly 180 passengers aboard a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv endured a nightmare scenario Wednesday when one pilot stabbed the other inside the cockpit, triggering an emergency distress signal and sending the aircraft into a violent mid-air plunge before an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
Aviatar Alevi, a 17-year-old passenger, described the chaos that erupted onboard as people were “screaming, running, panicking” with blood visible throughout the cabin. He said the possibility of dying felt very real in those moments.
Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 showed the plane dropped more than 14,000 feet in just 29 seconds. The aircraft sustained damage to one of its rudders, believed to have been caused by the severity of that descent.
Passenger Yaniv Hayun emerged as a hero after rushing into the cockpit and physically subduing the attacking pilot. He said he grabbed the suspect, choked him and pulled him away from the controls before helping to stabilize the aircraft. Hayun later met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, still wearing a blood-stained shirt.
Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian national identified as the pilot who was stabbed, was credited with opening the cockpit door and allowing passengers and crew to intervene. He was hospitalized in Saudi Arabia on Thursday and was being praised widely for his actions under extreme duress.
The suspected attacker, identified only as an Omani citizen, was taken into custody and was being questioned by Saudi authorities. The investigation into a possible motive remained active as of Thursday morning.
Netanyahu told CBS News he believed the incident appeared to be a suicide attempt rather than a hijacking but cautioned it was too early to draw firm conclusions. He also noted that Iran and its proxies had shown signs of planning heightened attacks against Israeli nationals abroad but stopped short of linking Tehran directly to this incident.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called it a jihadist terrorist attack while a Saudi Embassy spokesperson said investigators were working to determine whether it stemmed from a personal dispute or was state-sponsored. A senior U.S. official and a Saudi official both said early findings pointed increasingly toward an act of terrorism.
President Donald Trump weighed in as well, telling reporters the co-pilot appeared to be either a terrorist or deeply unstable. Four of the passengers held dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship, according to two American officials.
All passengers eventually arrived at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, where they were greeted by crowds of flag-waving Israelis and a swarm of media.