The story now seems to be that it was an Israeli plumber who pulled the first officer out of the Flydubai 1073 cockpit and then recovered the Boeing 737 Max from an unusual attitude (nose-down). All of Yaniv Hayoun’s flight training was from watching a TV show, Mayday: Air Disaster (your blog host is interviewed in Season 20, Episode 5 (“Atlantic Ditching”) of this show on Peacock, but unfortunately everything intelligent that I said regarding the Sikorsky S-92 avionics design was cut).
He then called his friends for help, putting the assailant in a chokehold before dragging him out from the cockpit and grabbing the controls in an incredible show of bravery.
When the plane began to level as he gripped the controls, an off-duty pilot told Yaniv that he would take it from there.
Since you can’t spit in the street without hitting a college graduate, including in Israel, it seems safe to surmise that this flight was packed with college grads. Could we ask for better proof about the uselessness-in-practice of college graduates? Whatever thinking they might do can now be done better by LLMs. When action is called for, it is the tradesman who acts.
Separately, now that I realize how easy it is for Pilot A to stab Pilot B, I am now surprised that none of the Delta/Comair captains ever stabbed me. It’s a straightforward way to deal with a lot of first officer issues.
Related:
- My visual approach, and Asiana’s (potential stabbing situation on the “Captain Sully route” of LGA to CLT)
- Asiana 214: Training with passengers in the back? (approach/landing in Toronto that didn’t flip the CRJ over, but definitely would have justified a stabbing)
> He then called his friends for help, putting the assailant in a chokehold …
The real question we should be asking, is how Yaniv Hayoun knew to execute a chokehold and where he learned the technique. I would argue that he learned it during his military service, given that military service is required of all Israeli citizens, including women.
Only women and queers don’t know how to apply a chokehold. I assume you never watch MMA fights.
Figured the mandatory conscription of all of Israelis led to a better outcome than than it would have been in US. Noted it was a woman who 1st discovered the cockpit fight, but deferred the task of overpowering the terrorist & saving the plane to her husband. At least the guy’s name was Manes. Must have been quite terrifying to get in the cockpit as the g forces dropped & the floor tilted.
Now that’s a can-do attitude.
“unfortunately everything intelligent that I said regarding the Sikorsky S-92 avionics design was cut”
Here I can only imagine someone with tousled hair and the sobriquet “PhD MIT” uttering puzzling platitudes (frequently cut) until the camera mercifully sweeps away.
For Philg fans, I checked out Mayday: Air Disaster Season 20, Episode 5 on Peacock (~5 minutes of adds interspersed throughout)
Phil (lovingly referred to with the title “Helicopter Pilot”) timestamps, at least the ones I could find:
3:58 – 4:14
4:28 – 4:44
15:51 – 16:02
27:02 – 27:13
27:21 – 27:31
27:55 – 28:08
35:02 – 35:13
Strangely not present in the credits…
Thanks, S. Considering that I’m not typed in the S-92, I’m sure that I got more credit than I deserve.
Jewish plumbers, Jewish carpenters. It must be nice to have a normal country.
Israelis aren’t smart enough to realize that they could boost their economy by importing 70 million humans from various societies with nothing in common.
Israelis should switch to an advanced business model. The plumbing company owner is Anglo-adjacent, while the motley ground crew shares no common known language.
Hot water is overrated, anyway.
The FlyDubai 1073 incident happened on September 30 — just two days ago. Yet, as of today, it is already yesterday’s news and no longer making front-page headlines. Compare that with the Air India Flight 171 crash, which remained front-page news for weeks.
Why is there so much attention given to reporting tragic events (both are attempting mass killing) while little attention is given to celebrating the lives that were saved? Or, even more importantly, investigating and reporting on the pilot’s actions and why he attempted to crash the plane?
Are they afraid to call it what it is, a terrorist attack, just as they were afraid to acknowledge that COVIDFear originated in Wuhan?
But how did he even get into the cockpit? In the US cockpit is always locked, is it not required in Dubai?
SK: The media reports are that the captain, despite having been stabbed, managed to open the door from the inside. “A badly wounded Indian pilot managed to unlock the cockpit door.” says https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/02/world/middleeast/flydubai-attack-timeline.html
(I know that it is true because it is from the newspaper that reported that Israel had destroyed a hospital in Gaza, killing 471 peaceful unarmed Gazans, after a rocket fired by some peaceful unarmed Gazans blew up in the parking lot of said hospital, killing perhaps 100 peaceful unarmed Gazans. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/23/gaza-hospital-new-york-times-00122986 )
@SK, If this event were made into a movie and shown to someone who had no knowledge of what actually happened, they would conclude that it was pure fiction. So many extraordinary things happened that the entire sequence of events are almost impossible in real life.
Forget, for a moment, the fact that the badly wounded pilot was able to open the cockpit door. There were passengers who managed to make their way to the cockpit while the plane was in a nose dive. There were two off-duty pilots who happened to be on board, and those off-duty pilots were somehow able to land the aircraft even after its rudder had been ripped off.
This is far more extraordinary compared to the miracle on the Hudson of flight US Airways Flight 1549.
philg: “uselessness-in-practice of college graduates? Whatever thinking they might do can now be done better by LLMs. When action is called for, it is the tradesman who acts.”
And, yet, not one reader of this blog would ever recommend her son skip college and go into a trade.
I have a relative who has been a tradesman all of his life. He wanted his son to go to college to avoid the trades, but now his son is essentially doing the trades with his dad as he can’t find a job (not sure what degree). Heartwarming and glad it is working out for them that way, but even the tradespeople don’t want to go into the trades!
From my limited understanding of flight dynamics, I didn’t think a 737-800 could go into a “nosedive” unless something was seriously compromised with the outer control surfaces. It would go into a steep dive as long as the yoke was being pressed forward, keeping the elevator down. As soon as pressure was released off the yoke, the elevator would tend to come back up due to the aerodynamic effects of increased airspeed. The actual yoke forward time would have been limited to after he finished stabbing the pilot, then released the autopilot, until the cockpit door opened and the plumber rushed in and yanked him out of the co-pilot seat.
Phil, my wives (ages 8, 9, and two at 11-all of whom I purchased in Kabul last year) were talking with relatives in the UK, who alerted them to the article below. They are sure you would be interested to know that not only is Hamam al-Hammami a Peaceful Islamic Family Man, he is also an esteemed College Graduate. We don’t yet have children, but this news suggests perhaps we should send them to college when the arrive-God Willing (perhaps Harvard would welcome them?). Maybe college isn’t useless? Your advice is always so treasured on matters like this, so thank you in advance. Allahu Akbar!
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16181797/Flydubai-hijacker-called-women-stomped-religious-rants-studying-British-university.html