Three amazing heroes saved FlyDubai passengers: a pilot, a plumber, and a dentist. Two relief pilots also brought the damaged plane down safely. They are heroes too. It was a miracle, and I can see a movie coming.
Captain Smit Machchhar, the pilot, fought the attacker while being stabbed repeatedly and managed to press the buttons to send alarms and open the cockpit door. He was the original hero.
An Israeli plumber named Yaniv Hayun saved the Tel Aviv-bound flydubai flight as it went into a terrifying nosedive after a violent attack in the cockpit. The dentist helped restrain the attacker and then saved the pilot, who was covered in cuts and sliced open.
Yaniv Hayun grabbed the plane’s levers and pulled back to level the aircraft out of the dive, later crediting his knowledge to watching the TV disaster series Mayday (Air Crash Investigation).
The Free Press Report
Hayoun was one of the people who stormed the cockpit. “I saw my wife and children and realized I have to do something,” he told me.
Hayoun, who works in maintenance and has no background in security, had a split-second decision to make. He told me that he felt compelled to help save his family’s lives, and those of the rest of the passengers on the plane….
Hayoun said he saw the entire scene unfold in real time. “There was complete chaos. One of the pilots stabbed another pilot. He tried to crash us. When it leveled out a little, just a little, we managed to get back up. I managed to open the cockpit door with the help of another crew member.
We physically fought with the co-pilot; he was going wild. I put him in a chokehold, took control of him, and dragged him out of the cockpit,” he told me. “Then I called for other Israelis to help restrain him.” Hayoun then returned to the cockpit. “I went back to the controls and pulled back on the yoke, because there was no one left in the cockpit,” he said.
“I had seen Air Crash Investigation on TV,” he told me, laughing, “I pulled back on the controls, and then another pilot came in and said he was taking control of the aircraft”
Dr Shota Musaev, a dentist, was also among those who ran to the cockpit. He told CNN they found the attacker on the floor on top of the pilot, stabbing him. Musaev then rushed to help Machchhar, “terrified” he was going to die.
“He was covered in cuts – his head, his hands – they were practically sliced open, almost severed in two … he had lost a lot of blood and was in bad shape.
“I think that if we had waited even a few more moments, we would have lost him. His blood pressure had plummeted, he suddenly lost consciousness, and there was blood everywhere,” he said.
Details
On September 30, 2026, a flydubai flight traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv experienced chaos when a pilot/co-pilot attacked the captain, Smit Machchhar, with a knife.
The aircraft plunged thousands of feet in a sharp nosedive as the attacker jammed the equipment, threatening to crash the plane with 174 passengers on board.
The injured captain managed to unlock and open the cockpit door before collapsing. Yaniv Hayun and other passengers rushed inside. Hayun put the attacker in a chokehold and pulled him away from the controls.
Hayun grabbed the plane’s levers. He pulled back to level the aircraft out of the dive, later crediting his knowledge to watching the TV disaster series Mayday (Air Crash Investigation).
Off-duty pilots and other crew members then stepped in to take full control, making an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, before everyone safely returned home.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and international leaders publicly praised Hayunand other heroic passengers, crediting their fast action with preventing a massive disaster.
Steve Arroyo, a former United Airlines pilot and aviation safety expert, said: “That was a serious descent and strong aerodynamic forces on that rudder for that to happen. I’m just amazed the aircraft didn’t come apart.”
“The relief pilots are European, one of them British, who entered [the cockpit] and pulled the aircraft up, pulled the yoke, stabilized the plane and landed us in Saudi Arabia,” Itali said in a clip posted by the BBC. Other reports suggested the off-duty pilots were from South Africa or New Zealand.
The courageous pilot from India went through surgery and is in stable condition. He has a wife and two children.