12 minutes of madness: How Flydubai pilot, passengers saved plane midfall

As it plunged 17,000ft in under two minutes, a quick-thinking captain and passengers saved the plane from crashing.

Indian pilot Smit Machchhar, who the leaders of Israel and India hailed as a hero for saving passengers after he was stabbed by his colleague in an alleged attempt to crash a Flydubai plane on Wednesday, smiles in an unidentified location in this undated handout image released on September 30, 2026 [Israel Foreign Ministry/Handout via Reuters]

The “hero” Indian captain of Flydubai Flight FZ1073 has described how he fought to open the door to the cockpit of his plane as he was being stabbed by his copilot on Wednesday.

In a video call from his hospital bed in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, Captain Smit Machchhar told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi: “When I was down, I could feel that the aircraft was plummeting, and I knew this is a last chance to do something. I knew the door was just there.”

As a result of his action and as the plane was hurtling towards the ground, passengers and crew were able to storm the cockpit, subdue his attacker and regain control of the aircraft, ultimately preventing it from crashing.

Meanwhile, United States President Donald Trump praised the actions of an “Israeli plumber” on board whose quick actions in the cockpit helped prevent a major tragedy.

“An Israeli plumber saw what was happening – he’s strong; you know, when you lift pipe all day, you’re strong – and he saw what was going on and he heard the screaming,” Trump told reporters.

As the plane plummeted about 17,000ft (5,180 metres) in just a matter of minutes, the US president said, “with the G-forces as they were, he ripped the guy out of his seat, threw him back – the crowd got him – and, having never flown a plane, he took the stick and lifted it up and levelled out the plane before it crashed.”

In the days since the incident, more accounts from passengers have come out.

At 7:05am (03:05 GMT) on Wednesday, Flight FZ1073 departed Dubai for Tel Aviv, climbing to 34,000ft (more than 10,000 metres), according to Flightradar24 . A little more than two hours later, it suddenly began to descend, plunging before rising and then descending again.

By 05:33 GMT, 12 minutes after the plane started to plummet, it was flying at roughly 15,000ft (4,570 metres) when it started to level out.

Here’s what we know about what happened in those terrifying minutes in between.

05:21 GMT: Flydubai plane begins steep descent

Flightradar24 data show that the aircraft started with a deep descent, followed by a sharp climb and a second steep descent.

Passenger Adam Polo, who was on the plane with his wife and two young children, told CNN that for a moment, the initial fall felt “like a normal air pocket”. “But after one second, you felt that the decrease and the acceleration of the downfall is not normal.”

“The electricity, all of the multimedia system and the air conditioning in the airplane stopped working,” he said. “People that were standing in the aisle or just going to the toilet, they fell. Anyone that wasn’t sitting fell. So it was like the craziest roller coaster that you ever did but multiplied by a thousand.”

In two minutes, the plane had descended more than 17,000ft. Passengers who have spoken to the media since returning safely home have described “chaos” in the cabin with people screaming and multiple waves of turbulence.

“The plane was going sharply down at an unbelievable angle, so sharp that the rudder ripped off the back of the plane,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. “The plane wasn’t designed to go at a speed anywhere near that, so it was well beyond its limits.”

‘Fighting for my life’: Captain stabbed

In the meantime, a fight had begun in the cockpit between the two pilots. The copilot had attacked the Indian captain of the plane, Smit Machchhar, by stabbing him.

On Thursday, Machchhar described how he suddenly found himself on the floor of the cockpit, grievously wounded.

“I was lying on the floor injured, but I told myself to go for one last push to open the door from inside,” he told Modi in a video call.

All cockpit doors are kept locked during flights, and only the pilots are able to open them. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson Doron Spielman told the media that despite being bloodied and lying on the floor, Machchhar had drawn on “the last moments of his energy” to click open the release on the cockpit door.

“Others came in and also played a role. I was, of course, fighting for my own life, but at the same time, I knew I was not going to let others die,” Machchhar told Modi.

Netanyahu has since praised Machchhar as a “true hero”, saying he demonstrated “extraordinary bravery” and saved the lives of the 174 people on the plane with that one act.

“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 mid-air disaster,” he said on X.

The captain told Modi he had been flying planes for 17 years and “can tell what is happening to the plane even with my eyes closed”.

The prime minister told him “his courage, patience and quick decision-making saved the lives of so many people” and all of India was proud of him.

On Thursday, the Indian embassy in the United Arab Emirates reported that Machchhar was “in good health and recovering well” in Abu Dhabi, where he was airlifted after receiving initial treatment in Saudi Arabia.

The Indian embassy in Riyadh said the “brave Indian pilot” had initially been admitted to hospital in Tabuk, a city in northwestern Saudi Arabia where the plane landed.

“A full update on his health is awaited but he is reported to be in stable condition. We hope that he recovers from his injuries at the earliest,” it wrote on X.

‘Like in the movies’: Passengers storm the cockpit

As soon as the captain opened the door, according to passenger Tzvika Manes, his wife, who was taking their young daughter to the toilet at the front of the plane, heard screams and a struggle in the cockpit.

As she alerted a flight attendant, the pilot fell through the cockpit door as his copilot was stabbing him, Manes told Israel’s Channel 12. Manes said he pulled his daughter out of the toilet before heading to engage the attacker.

At that point, “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,” Spielman said.

Asaf Rajuan, one of the Israeli passengers who restrained the copilot, told Channel 12 that the incident “was just [like] in the movies. I didn’t think something like this could happen in real life.”

Rajuan said he and other passengers heard shouting from the cockpit as they felt the plane plummeting.

Passenger Yaniv Hayun, the Israeli plumber Trump referred to, later said in a TV interview how he, Manes and Rajuan forced their way into the cockpit, where they found the wounded captain lying by the door.

“When I went in, I saw the terrorist on the controls, between the two seats. There were no pilots in the seats. I grabbed the terrorist, put him in a hold and first of all pulled him outside,” he said, adding that the copilot appeared to be trying to destroy the controls on the flight deck.

Once the copilot was in the cabin, passengers, including a dentist who was tending to the captain’s injuries, spent several minutes restraining him, using corded headphones to tie him up. Some have reported that he was shouting, “Kill me!”

‘Jumped back in’: Passenger seizes controls of plane

After pulling the copilot into the cabin, Hayun rushed back into the cockpit.

“I jumped back in there, grabbed the controls, started pulling the controls,” he said. “I watch Mayday,” he added, referring to a Canadian TV series about air crashes.

At that point, another pilot who had been travelling farther back in the plane arrived at the cockpit.

“The plane started levelling out a little more, and then the pilot told me he was taking over from there,” Hayun said.

At 05:28 GMT – it is unclear if this was before or after the new pilot reached the cockpit – the aircraft began transmitting the transponder code 7700, the international code for a general emergency. The plane was, at this point, flying near the Saudi Arabia-Jordan border.

‘Real bad shape’: Passenger tends to captain

The dentist, who was travelling home to Israel from China, rushed to help the wounded captain amid the chaos.

Shota Musayev told The Times of Israel: “When I heard screaming, after 10 seconds I ran – I didn’t wait. 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 said he believes the emergency medical treatment he provided to the 39-year-old pilot helped save Machchhar’s 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,” Musayev said. He also told Channel 12 how he tied the copilot’s hands and legs multiple times to secure him.

05:33 GMT: Flydubai plane is flying at 15,000ft

Flightradar24 recorded the plane levelled out at 15,000ft. Two minutes later at 05:35 GMT, its transponder code changed to 7500, signalling unlawful interference. Then, the aircraft turned west, briefly entered Jordanian airspace and then turned back towards Saudi Arabia.

05:44 GMT: Alert seeking an emergency landing

Air traffic controllers in Tabuk received a distress call from FZ1073 asking for an emergency landing.

As the aircraft approached Tabuk, its transponder switched back to code 7700, indicating a general emergency.

06:58 GMT: FZ1073 lands

Nearly four hours after it took off, the Flydubai plane landed in Tabuk, where emergency medical staff and security officials waited for the 174 people on board, including the wounded attacker, the bleeding pilot and the “plumber” who temporarily took charge of the plane’s control panel.

飞机在不到两分钟的时间内骤降 17000 英尺，机长和乘客们机智地阻止了飞机坠毁。

印度飞行员斯米特·马赫查尔（Smit Machchhar）周三在一次据称试图撞毁迪拜航空（Flydubai）飞机的事件中被同事刺伤，但他仍然救出了乘客，以色列和印度领导人称赞他是英雄。这张未注明日期的照片于2026年9月30日发布，照片中的马赫查尔面带微笑，地点不明。[以色列外交部/路透社供图]

Flydubai 航班 FZ1073 的印度籍“英雄”机长描述了周三他被副驾驶刺伤时，如何奋力打开驾驶舱门。

周四，在沙特阿拉伯的医院病床上，机长斯米特·马赫查尔通过视频通话告诉印度总理纳伦德拉·莫迪：“当我坠落时，我能感觉到飞机正在急速坠落，我知道这是我最后的机会了。我知道舱门就在那里。”

由于他的行动，在飞机高速坠向地面时，乘客和机组人员得以冲进驾驶舱，制服袭击者，重新控制飞机，最终阻止了飞机坠毁。

与此同时，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普赞扬了机上一名“以色列水管工”的行为，他在驾驶舱内的迅速行动帮助避免了一场重大悲剧。

特朗普告诉记者：“一位以色列水管工看到了当时的情况——他力气很大；你知道，整天搬管道的人力气都很大——他看到了正在发生的事情，也听到了尖叫声。”

飞机在短短几分钟内骤降约 17,000 英尺（5,180 米），美国总统说：“由于当时的重力加速度，他把那个人从座位上拽了出来，扔了回去——人群把他拉了过来——而他虽然从未驾驶过飞机，却拿起操纵杆，抬起飞机，在飞机坠毁前将飞机拉平。”

事件发生后的几天里，又有更多乘客讲述了他们的说法。

据 Flightradar24 数据显示，周三上午 7 点 05 分（格林尼治标准时间 03:05），FZ1073 航班从迪拜起飞前往特拉维夫，爬升至 34,000 英尺（超过 10,000 米）。两个多小时后，飞机突然开始下降，先是急速下坠，然后又爬升，接着再次下降。

格林尼治标准时间 05:33，飞机开始急速下降 12 分钟后，飞行高度约为 15,000 英尺（4,570 米），然后开始趋于平稳。

以下是我们对那令人恐惧的几分钟里发生的事情的了解。

格林尼治标准时间05:21：迪拜航空飞机开始陡峭下降

Flightradar24 的数据显示，这架飞机先是急剧下降，然后猛烈爬升，接着又急剧下降。

乘客亚当·波罗当时和妻子以及两个年幼的孩子在飞机上，他告诉CNN，最初的下落感觉“就像正常的气流冲击”。“但一秒钟后，你就会感觉到下落速度的降低和加速是不正常的。”

“飞机上的电力、所有多媒体系统和空调都停止工作了，”他说。“站在过道里的人，或者去洗手间的人，都摔倒了。所有没坐着的人都摔倒了。那感觉就像坐过山车一样，而且是那种最疯狂的过山车乘以一千倍。”

两分钟内，飞机下降了超过 17000 英尺。安全返回家中的乘客在接受媒体采访时描述了机舱内的“混乱”，人们尖叫着，并经历了多次湍流。

特朗普周四告诉记者：“飞机以难以置信的角度急剧下降，角度之大，以至于方向舵都从机尾脱落了。这架飞机的设计速度远不及此，远远超出了它的极限。”

“为生存而战”：队长被刺伤

与此同时，两名飞行员在驾驶舱内发生了冲突。副驾驶用刀刺伤了印度籍机长斯米特·马赫查尔。

周四，马赫查尔描述了他如何突然发现自己倒在驾驶舱地板上，身负重伤。

“我当时受伤躺在地板上，但我告诉自己要再用力推一下，从里面把门打开，”他在视频通话中告诉莫迪。

飞行期间所有驾驶舱门均保持上锁状态，只有飞行员才能打开。但以色列总理内塔尼亚胡的发言人多伦·斯皮尔曼告诉媒体，尽管马赫哈尔浑身是血地躺在地板上，但他仍然用尽“最后的力气”打开了驾驶舱门的释放装置。

“其他人也加入了战斗，发挥了作用。我当然是在为自己的性命而战，但与此同时，我知道我不能让其他人死去，”马赫查尔告诉莫迪。

内塔尼亚胡随后称赞马赫查尔是“真正的英雄”，称他展现了“非凡的勇气”，并凭借这一举动拯救了飞机上 174 人的生命。

“尽管被刺伤并受重伤，他仍然奋起反抗，打开驾驶舱门，使乘客和机组人员能够制服袭击者——从而避免了一场灾难性的空中事故，”他在X上说道。

机长告诉莫迪，他已经飞行了 17 年，“即使闭着眼睛也能知道飞机发生了什么事”。

总理告诉他，“他的勇气、耐心和迅速的决策拯救了许多人的生命”，全印度都为他感到骄傲。

周四，印度驻阿联酋大使馆报告称，马赫查尔在阿布扎比“身体状况良好，正在康复中”。此前，他在沙特阿拉伯接受了初步治疗，之后被空运至阿布扎比。

印度驻利雅得大使馆表示，这位“勇敢的印度飞行员”最初被送往沙特阿拉伯西北部城市塔布克的一家医院，飞机就是在那里降落的。

“关于他的健康状况，目前还没有更全面的消息，但据报道他情况稳定。我们希望他能尽快康复。”该机构在X上写道。

“就像电影里演的那样”：乘客冲进驾驶舱

据乘客茨维卡·马内斯 (Tzvika Manes) 称，机长一打开舱门，他的妻子就带着年幼的女儿去飞机前部的洗手间，听到驾驶舱里传来尖叫声和挣扎声。

马内斯告诉以色列第12频道，当他女儿向乘务员求助时，正值副驾驶用刀刺向飞行员，飞行员便从驾驶舱门摔了出去。马内斯说，他先把女儿从洗手间里拉出来，然后才去与袭击者搏斗。

斯皮尔曼说：“当时，一些意识到情况不对劲的乘客冲上前去，进入了驾驶舱。他们看到受伤的飞行员倒在地上，而另一名……也就是发动袭击的飞行员，正站在控制面板上方，猛烈地敲打着控制面板。”

参与制服副驾驶的以色列乘客之一阿萨夫·拉胡安告诉第12频道，这起事件“就像电影里演的那样。我没想到现实生活中会发生这样的事。”

拉胡安说，他和机上其他乘客听到驾驶舱里传来喊叫声，同时感觉到飞机正在急速坠落。

乘客亚尼夫·哈云（Yaniv Hayun，特朗普提到的以色列水管工）后来在一次电视采访中讲述了他和马内斯（Manes）以及拉胡安（Rajuan）如何强行进入驾驶舱，在那里他们发现受伤的机长躺在门口。

“我进去后，看到恐怖分子坐在驾驶舱里，就在两个座位之间。座位上没有飞行员。我抓住了恐怖分子，把他关进驾驶舱，然后把他拉了出去，”他说，并补充说，副驾驶似乎正试图破坏驾驶舱的控制装置。

副驾驶进入机舱后，包括一位正在为机长处理伤口的牙医在内的乘客，花了数分钟时间才制服了他，并用有线耳机将他捆绑起来。有人报告说，他当时大喊：“杀了我！”

“跳回驾驶舱”：乘客夺取飞机控制权

将副驾驶拉进驾驶舱后，海云冲回了驾驶舱。

“我跳回驾驶舱，抓住操纵杆，开始拉动控制杆，”他说。“我经常看《空中浩劫》（Mayday），”他补充道，指的是一部讲述空难的加拿大电视剧。

这时，另一名原本在飞机后部飞行的飞行员也来到了驾驶舱。

“飞机开始稍微平稳了一些，然后飞行员告诉我他要接管飞机了，”海云说。

格林尼治标准时间05:28——目前尚不清楚这是在新飞行员到达驾驶舱之前还是之后——飞机开始发送应答器代码7700，这是国际通用紧急情况代码。此时，飞机正在沙特阿拉伯和约旦边境附近飞行。

“情况非常糟糕”：乘客倾向于当船长

这位牙医当时正从中国返回以色列，在混乱中立即赶去帮助受伤的上尉。

肖塔·穆萨耶夫告诉《以色列时报》：“我听到尖叫声后，10秒钟后就跑了过去——我没等。当我冲进驾驶舱时，飞行员情况非常糟糕，大量出血，尤其是头部。”

“我是飞机上唯一的医生，最终我成功止住了他的出血，稳定了他的血压，”他说。

穆萨耶夫表示，他相信自己为这位 39 岁飞行员提供的紧急医疗救治挽救了马赫查尔的生命。

穆萨耶夫说：“那段时间非常艰难，但我们和机上几位勇敢的乘客一起，成功避免了一场几乎酿成灾难的局面。”他还告诉第12频道，为了确保副驾驶的安全，他多次捆绑了副驾驶的手脚。

格林威治标准时间05:33：迪拜航空的飞机正在15000英尺的高度飞行。

Flightradar24记录显示，飞机在15000英尺高度平稳飞行。两分钟后，格林尼治标准时间05:35，其应答器代码变为7500，表明遭到非法干扰。随后，飞机向西转向，短暂进入约旦领空，然后返回沙特阿拉伯领空。

格林尼治标准时间05:44：发出紧急迫降警报

塔布克的空中交通管制员收到来自FZ1073的遇险呼叫，请求紧急降落。

当飞机接近塔布克时，其应答器切换回代码 7700，表明发生了一般紧急情况。

格林威治标准时间06:58：FZ1073着陆

起飞近四个小时后，迪拜航空的飞机降落在塔布克，紧急医疗人员和安保人员在那里等待机上 174 人，其中包括受伤的袭击者、流血的飞行员和暂时接管飞机控制面板的“水管工”。