Indian flydubai pilot saluted for using ‘last moments of his energy’ to click open cockpit door so knife-wielding copilot could be subdued by Israelis.
Passenger Yaniv Hayun, with blood stains on his shirt, one of the Israelis who helped subdue a flydubai copilot who allegedly sought to hijack and crash a plane full of Israelis, at Ben Gurion Airport, September 30, 2026. Photo: AP Photo/Tomer Appelbaum
(Times of Israel) Passengers saved from a copilot’s apparent attempt to crash a flydubai flight landed safely in Israel, with the heroes who thwarted him sharing the story of their efforts after arriving at Ben Gurion Airport.
Footage taken by an Israeli on the flydubai rescue flight showed passengers cheering and singing as their plane touched down at Ben Gurion Airport, after their earlier flight from Dubai made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia due to an alleged attempt by the copilot to deliberately crash the plane.
There were reportedly 166 Israelis and eight other passengers on the rescue flight, which departed Saudi Arabia after six hours on the ground. Some were given medical treatment in the terminal.
Several of the passengers were initially unwilling to board the second flydubai plane for the journey home. Israel had wanted to send its own planes to return them, but Saudi authorities refused.
Mossad officials approved the plane’s flight crew, and the passengers then agreed to board, Channel 12 news reported.
A 51-year-old man aboard the flight was taken to an Israeli hospital in good condition after suffering trauma to his upper body, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service, which said it examined all of the passengers.
The flydubai captain who was attacked by his copilot was identified as Indian national Smit Machchhar.
Machchhar was stabbed by his copilot, who is said to be an Omani national. Some passengers said Machchhar was stabbed in his head and hands, and badly wounded.
Machchhar lives in Dubai and has 13 years of experience as a pilot, including over four with flydubai, The Times of India reported.
Captain Smit Machchhar, captain of the flydubai flight. Photo: X
Amid the attack, the plane initially plummeted some 17,000 feet in under two minutes. A group of Israeli passengers managed to force their way into the cockpit, subdue the stabber and stabilise the plane, witnesses said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson Doron Spielman said the wounded captain, bloodied and lying on the floor, had drawn on “the last moments of his energy” to click open the release on the cockpit door.
“At that moment, 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,” he said.
After being attacked by his copilot, Machchhar was treated by Dr Shota Musayev, an Israeli dentist on board.
“When I heard screaming, after 10 seconds I ran — I didn’t wait,” Musayev told The Times of Israel upon arriving back in the country. “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, who was traveling back from China, said he provided emergency medical treatment to the badly wounded 39-year-old pilot, which he believes helped save his 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,” he recounted. “Now I just want to go home and hug my children.”
Dr. Shota Musayev after landing at Ben Gurion Airport on September 30, 2026. Photo: Sharon Wrobel/Times of Israel
Speaking separately with Channel 12, Musayev also recalled tying up the copilot’s hands and legs multiple times to ensure he would not break free and resume his attack.
Netanyahu hailed Machchhar, calling him a “true hero” and wishing him a full recovery from his wounds.
“My salute to the Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his extraordinary bravery. 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 midair disaster,” Netanyahu wrote on X.
“He saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals. I wish Captain Machchhar a speedy and full recovery. He is a true hero,” the premier said.
‘I watch Mayday’: Israeli hero credits Canadian documentary for helping him prevent nosedive
Yaniv Hayun, one of three Israeli passengers who helped subdue the attacker, recounted how he entered the cockpit, dragged the suspected assailant away from the controls and then helped stabilise the nosediving aircraft.
Meeting Netanyahu at Ben Gurion Airport after returning to Israel, Hayun said he and another man forced their way into the cockpit, where the wounded pilot was lying near the door.
“When I went in, I saw the terrorist on the controls, between the two seats. There were no pilots in the seats,” he recounted. “I grabbed the terrorist, put him in a hold, and first of all pulled him outside,” he said.
Asked by Netanyahu what the alleged attacker had been doing, Hayun replied: “He was trying to destroy the controls in order to disable the plane.”
Hayun said he called other Israelis on the flight to help hold back the man before returning to the cockpit as the aircraft was tilting sharply.
“I jumped back in there, grabbed the controls, started pulling the controls,” he said, explaining that he pulled backward and quipping that he knew what to do because “I watch Mayday,” referring to a Canadian documentary television program that examines air crashes.
“The plane started leveling out a little more, and then the pilot told me he was taking over from there,” he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Yaniv Hayun, one of the Israelis who helped subdue the flydubai copilot who allegedly sought to hijack and crash a plane full of Israelis, on the passengers’ return to Ben Gurion Airport on September 30, 2026. Photo: Kobi Gideon/GPO
Fighting for life
Assaf Rajwan, another of the Israelis who helped subdue the copilot, told Channel 12 that the experience “was just [like] in the movies. I didn’t think something like this could happen in real life.”
“It was a case of to be or not to be,” he said.
According to Rajwan, who was injured in the incident “but not too badly,” passengers heard shouting from the cockpit, and the plane spiraled out of control. The cockpit door was open, and he and the other Israelis went in, together with members of the crew, and overcame the copilot. He praised the plane’s captain and the two off-duty pilots on board who subsequently managed to stabilise the plane.
“We kept the terrorist neutralised for 55 minutes,” Rajwan added, “and we landed safely.”
He said passengers were extremely reluctant to board another flydubai plane for the journey home, and did “not get clear answers” from Israeli authorities. They asked that the plane be delayed while checks were carried out on the second plane’s crew.
He said he was “in shock — I can’t believe I was in Thailand a few hours ago… on a family vacation.”
“I thank G-d… and everybody who helped” enable them to survive the incident, Rajwan said, stressing that it was not him alone who did so.
“Life is stronger than everything, and we decided to fight for it,” he said. “It’s hard for me to believe that it ended the way it did… I’m very happy to be here.”
Assaf Rajwan, right, who helped subdue a flydubai copilot who allegedly sought to hijack and crash a plane full of Israelis, at Ben Gurion Airport, September 30, 2026. Photo: AP Photo/Ariel Schalit
Tzvika Manes, the third Israeli hero, also recalled the dramatic incident in an interview with Channel 12.
Manes said his wife had been accompanying his young daughter to the bathroom at the front of the plane when she heard screams and a struggle taking place in the cockpit.
Manes’s wife then got the attention of a flydubai flight attendant and told them to go into the cockpit to check what was going on.
At this point, the pilot fell out of the cockpit door as his copilot was stabbing him, Manes said.
The plane began to spiral dramatically toward the ground and passengers “went flying.”
Manes said he pulled his daughter out of the bathroom before heading to engage the attacker. The two other Israelis joined him, with Hayun managing to take hold of the steering wheel and pull the plane back upward.
It took roughly 20-25 minutes to subdue the alleged hijacker, with the three Israelis using corded headphones to tie him up.
Manes likened the incident to a “horror film,” saying there were moments when he thought he would not come out alive.
He recalled his daughters screaming “We don’t want to die,” as the plane nosedived — “something traumatic for any father to hear.”
“It was a very difficult scenario… but because we’re Israelis, so we responded quickly,” he told Channel 12.
Lital Shahar, another passenger, credited “two miracles” with saving her life along with those of her daughters and everyone else on the plane.
“It was so scary to death on the plane. I felt sick. There are no words to describe what we experienced. Imagine I’m a mother and had my four girls next to me,“ Shahar, from Givat Shmuel, told The Times of Israel. “We were sitting fairly toward the front in row 10, so we were very close and could hear people screaming that there was a stabbing.”
Passengers from flydubai flight FZ1073 walk with their family members after they were saved from an alleged attempt to crash their plane, at Ben Gurion Airport, September 30, 2026. Photo: Jamal Awad/Flash90
“There were two miracles — that Israelis were on the plane who heroically went into the cockpit… and that there were off-duty pilots onboard who could land the plane in Saudi Arabia,” Shahar recounted with great relief.
Shahar expressed her gratitude for the warm welcome that passengers received at Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk airport after the flydubai flight succeeded in making an emergency landing.
“We immediately felt safe because they were really amazing and generous,” said Shahar. “So many soldiers and nurses and doctors. They all spoke English and helped us.”
“They didn’t stop saying, ‘You are in a safe place now,’” said Shahar.