12 minutes of madness: How Flydubai pilot, passengers saved plane midfall

The “hero” Indian captain of Flydubai Flight FZ1073 has described how he fought to open the door to the cockpit of his plane as he was being stabbed by his copilot on Wednesday.

In a video call from his hospital bed in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, Captain Smit Machchhar told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi: “When I was down, I could feel that the aircraft was plummeting, and I knew this is a last chance to do something. I knew the door was just there.”

As a result of his action and as the plane was hurtling towards the ground, passengers and crew were able to storm the cockpit, subdue his attacker and regain control of the aircraft, ultimately preventing it from crashing.

Meanwhile, United States President Donald Trump praised the actions of an “Israeli plumber” on board whose quick actions in the cockpit helped prevent a major tragedy.

“An Israeli plumber saw what was happening – he’s strong; you know, when you lift pipe all day, you’re strong – and he saw what was going on and he heard the screaming,” Trump told reporters.

As the plane plummeted about 17,000ft (5,180 metres) in just a matter of minutes, the US president said, “with the G-forces as they were, he ripped the guy out of his seat, threw him back – the crowd got him – and, having never flown a plane, he took the stick and lifted it up and levelled out the plane before it crashed.”

In the days since the incident, more accounts from passengers have come out.

At 7:05am (03:05 GMT) on Wednesday, Flight FZ1073 departed Dubai for Tel Aviv, climbing to 34,000ft (more than 10,000 metres), according to Flightradar24. A little more than two hours later, it suddenly began to descend, plunging before rising and then descending again.

By 05:33 GMT, 12 minutes after the plane started to plummet, it was flying at roughly 15,000ft (4,570 metres) when it started to level out.

Here’s what we know about what happened in those terrifying minutes in between.

05:21 GMT: Flydubai plane begins steep descent

Flightradar24 data show that the aircraft started with a deep descent, followed by a sharp climb and a second steep descent.

Passenger Adam Polo, who was on the plane with his wife and two young children, told CNN that for a moment, the initial fall felt “like a normal air pocket”. “But after one second, you felt that the decrease and the acceleration of the downfall is not normal.”

“The electricity, all of the multimedia system and the air conditioning in the airplane stopped working,” he said. “People that were standing in the aisle or just going to the toilet, they fell. Anyone that wasn’t sitting fell. So it was like the craziest roller coaster that you ever did but multiplied by a thousand.”

In two minutes, the plane had descended more than 17,000ft. Passengers who have spoken to the media since returning safely home have described “chaos” in the cabin with people screaming and multiple waves of turbulence.

“The plane was going sharply down at an unbelievable angle, so sharp that the rudder ripped off the back of the plane,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. “The plane wasn’t designed to go at a speed anywhere near that, so it was well beyond its limits.”

‘Fighting for my life’: Captain stabbed

In the meantime, a fight had begun in the cockpit between the two pilots. The copilot had attacked the Indian captain of the plane, Smit Machchhar, by stabbing him.

On Thursday, Machchhar described how he suddenly found himself on the floor of the cockpit, grievously wounded.

“I was lying on the floor injured, but I told myself to go for one last push to open the door from inside,” he told Modi in a video call.

All cockpit doors are kept locked during flights, and only the pilots are able to open them. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson Doron Spielman told the media that despite being bloodied and lying on the floor, Machchhar had drawn on “the last moments of his energy” to click open the release on the cockpit door.

“Others came in and also played a role [in controlling the situation]. I was, of course, fighting for my own life, but at the same time, I knew I was not going to let others die,” Machchhar told Modi.

Netanyahu has since praised Machchhar as a “true hero”, saying he demonstrated “extraordinary bravery” and saved the lives of the 174 people on the plane with that one act.

“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 said on X.

The captain told Modi he had been flying planes for 17 years and “can tell what is happening to the plane even with my eyes closed”.

The prime minister told him “his courage, patience and quick decision-making saved the lives of so many people” and all of India was proud of him.

On Thursday, the Indian embassy in the United Arab Emirates reported that Machchhar was “in good health and recovering well” in Abu Dhabi, where he was airlifted after receiving initial treatment in Saudi Arabia.

The Indian embassy in Riyadh said the “brave Indian pilot” had initially been admitted to hospital in Tabuk, a city in northwestern Saudi Arabia where the plane landed.

“A full update on his health is awaited but he is reported to be in stable condition. We hope that he recovers from his injuries at the earliest,” it wrote on X.

‘Like in the movies’: Passengers storm the cockpit

As soon as the captain opened the door, according to passenger Tzvika Manes, his wife, who was taking their young daughter to the toilet at the front of the plane, heard screams and a struggle in the cockpit.

As she alerted a flight attendant, the pilot fell through the cockpit door as his copilot was stabbing him, Manes told Israel’s Channel 12. Manes said he pulled his daughter out of the toilet before heading to engage the attacker.

At that point, “some of the passengers who realised something was happening raced forward, entered the pilot’s cabin. They saw the injured pilot on the ground, and the other, … the attacking pilot, was standing over the control panel, bashing the control panel,” Spielman said.

Asaf Rajuan, one of the Israeli passengers who restrained the copilot, told Channel 12 that the incident “was just [like] in the movies. I didn’t think something like this could happen in real life.”

Rajuan said he and other passengers heard shouting from the cockpit as they felt the plane plummeting.

Passenger Yaniv Hayun, the Israeli plumber Trump referred to, later said in a TV interview how he, Manes and Rajuan forced their way into the cockpit, where they found the wounded captain lying by the door.

“When I went in, I saw the terrorist on the controls, between the two seats. There were no pilots in the seats. I grabbed the terrorist, put him in a hold and first of all pulled him outside,” he said, adding that the copilot appeared to be trying to destroy the controls on the flight deck.

Once the copilot was in the cabin, passengers, including a dentist who was tending to the captain’s injuries, spent several minutes restraining him, using corded headphones to tie him up. Some have reported that he was shouting, “Kill me!”

‘Jumped back in’: Passenger seizes controls of plane

After pulling the copilot into the cabin, Hayun rushed back into the cockpit.

“I jumped back in there, grabbed the controls, started pulling the controls,” he said. “I watch Mayday,” he added, referring to a Canadian TV series about air crashes.

At that point, another pilot who had been travelling farther back in the plane arrived at the cockpit.

“The plane started levelling out a little more, and then the pilot told me he was taking over from there,” Hayun said.

At 05:28 GMT – it is unclear if this was before or after the new pilot reached the cockpit – the aircraft began transmitting the transponder code 7700, the international code for a general emergency. The plane was, at this point, flying near the Saudi Arabia-Jordan border.

The dentist, who was travelling home to Israel from China, rushed to help the wounded captain amid the chaos.

Shota Musayev told The Times of Israel: “When I heard screaming, after 10 seconds I ran – I didn’t wait. When I came into the cockpit, the pilot was in real bad shape with heavy bleeding, particularly from his head.”

“I was the only doctor on the plane, and eventually, I managed to stop the bleeding and stabilise his blood pressure,” he said.

Musayev said he believes the emergency medical treatment he provided to the 39-year-old pilot helped save Machchhar’s life.

“These were very hard moments, but together with a few brave people on the plane, we managed to avert a situation that was very close to a disaster,” Musayev said. He also told Channel 12 how he tied the copilot’s hands and legs multiple times to secure him.

05:33 GMT: Flydubai plane is flying at 15,000ft

Flightradar24 recorded the plane levelled out at 15,000ft. Two minutes later at 05:35 GMT, its transponder code changed to 7500, signalling unlawful interference. Then, the aircraft turned west, briefly entered Jordanian airspace and then turned back towards Saudi Arabia.

05:44 GMT: Alert seeking an emergency landing

Air traffic controllers in Tabuk received a distress call from FZ1073 asking for an emergency landing.

As the aircraft approached Tabuk, its transponder switched back to code 7700, indicating a general emergency.

06:58 GMT: FZ1073 lands

Nearly four hours after it took off, the Flydubai plane landed in Tabuk, where emergency medical staff and security officials waited for the 174 people on board, including the wounded attacker, the bleeding pilot and the “plumber” who temporarily took charge of the plane’s control panel.