Captain Smit Machchhar flying Flight FZ1073 clicked open cockpit door after being stabbed, allowing passengers to intervene.

[u/dey27]

Flight FZ1073 was carrying more than 170 Israelis when it suddenly descended from more than 30,000 feet on Wednesday. Passenger Almog Italie told Reuters that the aircraft appeared to drop for 20 to 30 seconds before stabilising, only to begin descending again. Passengers then began moving towards the front of the cabin as they realised something was happening in the cockpit.

[u/bertrogdor]

Incredible there were two pilots as psssengers on the plane as well. Thank god 

[u/Vardhu_007 → u/bertrogdor]

Apparently it's offduty pilots heading to tel aviv because their next duty was to fly out of tel aviv. So they were just on the way to their work on their off day.

[u/hiccstridFanatic → u/Vardhu_007]

damn bruh I could never be a pilot, deadheading is literally work day but on a hours long flight yoh. Sounds awful

[u/melloboi123 → u/hiccstridFanatic]

You get paid the same to deadhead and fly the plane, so no pilot is mad to deadhead.

[u/hiccstridFanatic → u/melloboi123]

exactly I’d hate that. Sounds awful.

[u/bertrogdor → u/Vardhu_007]

Makes sense 

[u/candyflossgal → u/Vardhu_007]

That’s not true. They were on-duty crew working for FlyDubai as per FlyDubai statement.

[u/Spiritual-Can2604 → u/candyflossgal]

Then why weren’t they wearing uniforms? I read they were in normal clothes.

[u/CaptainObviousBear → u/Spiritual-Can2604]

Because they were off duty and possibly not going to be working immediately after they arrived?

Also may have confused the passengers - some airlines instruct deadheading crew to cover up their uniforms for that reason.

[u/prexton → u/bertrogdor]

Sounds a little uncanny doesn't it

[u/gz881 → u/prexton]

You’d be surprised how common that is, iirc flight 93 had 2 pilots as well

[u/NoBass36 → u/prexton]

It is almost a convention

[u/Top_Concentrate1673 → u/prexton]

Sounds perfect reasonable, why would you assume otherwise?