A Wounded Captain, a Plumber and Two Off-Duty Pilots: Inside the Fight to Save Flight FZ1073

Yaniv Hayoun was still wearing a bloodstained shirt when he met Israel’s prime minister at Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday. Hours earlier he had rushed into the cockpit of a flydubai jet, helped overpower a co-pilot accused of stabbing the captain, and briefly grabbed the controls as the plane plunged. Asked how he knew what to do, he pointed to the TV series Air Crash Investigation. He is a plumber by trade.

Four days later, everyone who was on Flight FZ1073 is home. But the questions that matter most remain unanswered: why it happened, and how a weapon reached the flight deck.

Two hours into a routine flight

The Boeing 737 MAX left Dubai for Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning, September 30. According to Israeli officials, it was about two hours into the flight when the co-pilot stabbed the captain. Flight-tracking data shows the plane then fell nearly 14,000 feet in about 30 seconds. Some trackers recorded a larger drop, from about 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet in roughly a minute, before the jet circled erratically near the Jordanian border.

It was the captain who made the rescue possible. An Israeli spokesperson told Reuters that the wounded pilot released the cockpit door. Passengers said the plane was nose-diving as Hayoun made his way forward, and the impact threw him sideways. He said he put the co-pilot in a chokehold and pulled him out of the cockpit, then called on others to help hold him down. He returned and pulled back on the controls to try to level the aircraft until a pilot travelling as a passenger took over. Hayoun said three other passengers helped him.

Another passenger, financier Tzvika Manes, told Calcalist that he helped restrain the co-pilot. An Israeli official said an undercover security agent also helped subdue him. That claim has not been confirmed by the airline or by Saudi or Emirati authorities. Two off-duty flydubai pilots then flew the jet to Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia. The airline says only that on-duty crew travelling on board secured the aircraft and landed it.

As the drama unfolded, the jet’s transponder sent the 7700 emergency code, followed briefly by 7500, the code for a hijacking. Israeli Air Force fighter jets were scrambled.

The captain

The injured captain has been identified as Smit Machchhar, an Indian national. Netanyahu called him “a true hero” and said he saved the lives of the 174 people on board. Some early reports described the captain as Emirati. Indian officials said Machchhar was being treated in a Tabuk hospital and was in stable condition. No newer update on his recovery has been published.

Who was on board

Netanyahu put the number on board at 174, and other reports gave figures of up to 180. Most of the passengers were Israeli, and 27 were children, according to one aviation outlet. Tabuk airport said all of them left on a replacement aircraft, which landed at Ben Gurion that afternoon. One passenger was treated for light injuries after arriving in Israel.

The suspect

The incident has also affected air travel between Israel and the UAE. Flydubai suspended its Israel flights while the investigation continues. Israel ordered a six-day suspension of the airline, which officials said was coordinated with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed.

Israel’s Transportation Minister Miri Regev is examining whether flydubai broke an agreement that only pilots holding passports from countries with diplomatic ties to Israel may fly to Israel. Oman does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. Israel has also said it will now check the identities of all pilots flying into the country.

The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority has opened its own investigation into what happened.

What investigators still need to answer

Investigators are still trying to establish how a weapon reached the cockpit, whether the co-pilot meant to crash the plane, and whether anyone else was involved. Israel Hayom reported that he had worked for flydubai for about nine months.

Aviation-security consultant Philip Baum said it was too early to know exactly what happened, but that the incident highlights the threat posed by insiders in civil aviation.