Passengers of flight FZ1073 of the company FlyDubai from Dubai to Tel Aviv they thought they had run into turbulence. A few minutes later, they were sure they were going to die.
There were about 174 people in the Boeing 737, almost all of them Israelis. The flight went smoothly until shouts were heard from the direction of the cockpit.
"The plane suddenly started going up and down. Then we heard a scream," said passenger Meital Zoller.
A shock soon followed. The plane dived sharply. Passengers were strapped to their seats, luggage compartments opened, and suitcases flew through the cabin.
"You couldn't move. It was like something was pulling you down," Hilla Guyer said. At that moment, she turned to her partner and daughters and told them she loved them.
Decay and fear
According to data from the Flytradar24 service, the plane lost more than 17.000 feet of altitude in less than two minutes, or more than five kilometers. He sent an emergency signal, then a signal indicating unlawful interference with the control of the aircraft, then a distress call again.
Shortly thereafter, over northern Saudi Arabia, it abruptly changed course.
"I kept repeating in my head: I'm done. I don't deserve to die like this," said 16-year-old passenger Peleg Iteli.
Only then did word spread among the passengers about what was happening behind the cockpit door.
According to Israeli officials and passenger testimonies, one pilot attacked the other with a knife and tried to shoot down the plane. The motive of the attack is currently unknown, and the authorities of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have not officially confirmed this version of the event.
Decisive moment
The decisive moment occurred when the severely injured pilot managed to open the cockpit door.
"When the door opened, there was a lot of blood," passenger Miriam Ohion said.
Several men from the passenger cabin immediately ran forward. Asaf Rajuan was among them.
"We acted instinctively. We got him down very quickly," he said.
Passengers found one pilot covered in blood and another with a knife in his hand in the cockpit.
Passenger Yaniv Hajun, wearing clothes stained with blood, described how they stopped the attacker.
When he entered the cockpit, the attacker allegedly fiddled with the instrument panel. Hajun suspected that he wanted to disable the plane.
He grabbed him by the neck and pulled him out of the cockpit. The plane sank at that moment. The Israeli took the controls and started pulling the lever back. After that, the pilot who was among the passengers took control of the plane.
When asked how he knew what to do, Hayun said he watched a television documentary series about plane crashes.
Shota Musayev, a passenger who is a dentist by profession, provided first aid to the wounded pilot.
The assailant was overpowered and tied up with earphone cables.
Passengers take over the cockpit
But the danger was not yet over. One pilot was seriously wounded, the other disabled, and the plane was still in the air above the desert.
According to the testimonies of the passengers, the two FlyDubai pilots who were in the cabin as passengers moved to the cockpit, took over the controls and managed to stabilize the aircraft. A few tens of minutes later the plane landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
"One of the biggest fears was that we didn't know where we were going to end up. There was just desert below us," Rajuan said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu identified the wounded pilot as Indian citizen Smit Machar. According to him, it was he, although stabbed and seriously injured, who managed to resist, open the cockpit door and enable the passengers to prevent the disaster.
After landing, the passengers were evacuated in Saudi Arabia and later transferred to Tel Aviv on another plane.
When they finally arrived home, many could not hold back their tears.
"I am so happy to be back in Israel," Meital Zoler said. "Thank God we're all right."
The captain's condition is stable.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the Indian pilot for his fearlessness.
"He is a real hero," Netanyahu wrote on Wednesday night on IX.
Despite severe injuries from the knife, he resisted, opened the cabin door and allowed the passengers to overpower the assailant. That's how he prevented a disaster and saved 174 people, Netanyahu wrote.
The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia, where the plane made an emergency landing, announced last night that the pilot's condition is stable.
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