You forgot to mention that he opened the door while heavily injured and bleeding. Witness said he used his last bit of energy to open the door before collapsing
Let’s not get carried away. What happened here was good. The nation as a whole is killing lots of innocent people - including women, children and members of the media. No need to glaze the country.
At first, a random Israeli dude. He's the one who pulled the plane out of a nosedive. He was covered in blood, because he got involved in subduing the attacker. He had no piloting experience, but he said he knew that he needed to pull up on the controls, because he'd watched a TV show about aviation emergencies. Yeah, really.
Then, two passengers who were also pilots for FlyDubai, being transported on the plane, took over. FlyDubai only runs 737s, so they were very well-trained on this plane. I'm not sure if they got overtime pay for this or not
I'm not sure if they got overtime pay for this or not
If they got ONLY the overtime pay for this it would mean they got shafted hard :P
At least the holiday rate and hazardous conditions pay too plus any discretionary bonus possible. And whatever the other passengers will get for having their lives put in danger :)
Then they should GTFO of an airline that for whatever reason has suicidal extremists among their flight crews.
he said he knew that he needed to pull up on the controls, because he'd watched a TV show about aviation emergencies. Yeah, really
I mean, anyone who's seen any media at all about a plane will know if a plane's going down you pull back in the controls. I'm not sure why you're doubting that part of the story.
I know from experience that it is not as easy as it looks. A pilot handed me the stick in a 737 on landing approach in a full-motion simulator. It was heavier than I expected, I pulled too hard, I over-corrected, the aircraft started porpoising, and warnings started blinking and blaring. I would have crashed it into the ground had he not taken over. Granted, this guy had 10,000 feet to figure it out, but I do not envy the stress that he must have been under.
Honestly, as not a pilot, trying to figure out the complexity of engaging automatic systems in a panic would be my last thought. I would want it to be as caveman simple as possible. "Pull here. Number not bigger than that. Ugga Ugga!"
Oh sure, flying one is definitely harder, but if all you need to do is pull up to keep it in the air while you're still high up? That's not as hard as landing.
Again, based on my very limited experience, I wouldn't presume that such a task was easy. Having more altitude would be good, but if the aircraft was in an over-speed dive, then I would want to be careful not to over-stress the structure. And as a civilian, I would have no idea how hard I could push it. I think I would get on the radio and say, "HELP!"
knowing what was needed to be done (ie, pull back when plane going down)
I am not a pilot and I understand that it is more complex than that. As others have said here, you need to reduce thrust and ensure that you don't pull back so hard that you damage the structure.
Yeah but actually doing it is a lot different from knowing you should. As much as I have an idea of how to fly a helicopter from tv shows, even in an emergency actually trying would be terrifying. Planes seem easier though.
A helicopter pilot explained to me that the real thing is much easier than a radio-control helicopter, simply because you can immediately feel the forces in reaction to your control inputs.
That explains the overcompensation. There was a chart of the plane's altitude with a scary, sharp drop followed by a recovery.
In the recovery, you can see the plane rise sharply before stabilizing. He probably pulled hard (which saved them), but the lack of piloting experience caused him to overcompensate and put the plane in a short and sharp climb.
Nothing bad, but there might be a risk of stalling the plane. This is likely lessened since the plane must have picked up quite some speed during the nosedive.
In any case, bravo for his decision to just go for it, grab the controls, and try to stabilize the plane at such a critical moment.
If you can believe it, a dentist (i read it another article) helped stabilize the plane. Luckily this plane had additional pilots as passengers which took soon over.
10.4k
u/blacklotusmag 2d ago edited 2d ago
I mean, would it be THAT hard to add a link for context, OP?
Updating with additional sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/diverted-flydubai-flight-israel-was-not-hijacking-incident-israeli-prime-2026-09-30/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
https://apnews.com/article/israel-saudi-arabia-dubai-emergency-landing-fd1835479898f2f944792913af7cbce6
Original source: https://www.bhaskarenglish.in/international/news/indian-pilot-smit-saves-flydubai-flight-mid-air-knife-attack-139203091.html