Source Details

{
    "source_type": "extension",
    "content_hash": "eeaa2dc84777f807a92b1b045606f4002acf57fde8ccd0eb9fb7b2cd6edcb551",
    "submitted_via": "chrome_extension",
    "extension_version": "1.0.18",
    "original_url": "https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/10\/02\/world\/middleeast\/flydubai-attack-timeline.html?emc=edit_na_20261002&nl=breaking-news&segment_id=227436",
    "parsed_content": "War\u00a0in the Middle EastDiplomatic EffortsHouthi-Saudi\u00a0ConflictU.S. Cost of WarVideo: Oil ExportsThe Mother\u2019s Scream That Sent Passengers to the RescueA badly wounded Indian pilot managed to unlock the cockpit door. Four Israeli men teamed up to overwhelm an attacker and avert disaster.A FlyDubai plane carrying Israeli passengers who had earlier been aboard another FlyDubai aircraft that made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia approaches Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv on Wednesday.Credit...Ohad Zwigenberg\/Associated PressThe Mother\u2019s Scream That Sent Passengers to the RescueA badly wounded Indian pilot managed to unlock the cockpit door. Four Israeli men teamed up to overwhelm an attacker and avert disaster.A FlyDubai plane carrying Israeli passengers who had earlier been aboard another FlyDubai aircraft that made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia approaches Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv on Wednesday.Credit...Ohad Zwigenberg\/Associated PressSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTListen \u00b7 16:16 min Share full articleBy David M. HalbfingerNatan OdenheimerAdam RasgonJohnatan Reiss and Aaron BoxermanThe reporters interviewed more than a dozen passengers on Flight 1073.Oct. 2, 2026Updated 11:43 a.m. ETFive-year-old Nina Manes, flying home to Tel Aviv with her family in business class, needed to use the bathroom.Her mother, Tali, stood waiting for her outside the plane\u2019s lavatory, when she suddenly heard frightening shouts and loud bangs coming from behind the closed door to the flight deck.What unfolded next was a harrowing chain of events that led the passengers aboard FlyDubai Flight 1073 to think that they were all about to die in a terrorist attack \u2014 but instead turned into a tale of heroism on the part of an Indian pilot and a handful of Israelis.Hearing what sounded worrisomely like a melee, Ms. Manes, 46, said she pulled a backup pilot, seated in his uniform nearby, by the hand and prodded him to investigate.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTHe pulled open the cockpit door \u2014 which had been unlocked from the inside \u2014 onto a horrific scene.There was blood all over the flight deck.And the first officer was stabbing the captain, again and again and again.Four Israeli passengers aboard Wednesday morning\u2019s flight from Dubai are being hailed for racing unarmed into harm\u2019s way, overpowering the first officer, giving the captain first aid, and making it possible for a second backup pilot to take over and land the plane safely in Saudi Arabia.ImageWith blood stains on his shirt, Yaniv Hayoun, a passenger on FlyDubai Flight 1073, was welcomed at Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv on Wednesday.Credit...Tomer Appelbaum\/Associated PressYaniv Hayoun, in Row 11, a plumber who liked to watch a television show about air-crash investigations.Asaf Rajuan, in Row 7, a financial planner who had narrowly escaped death last year, when an Iranian missile slammed into the apartment building next door to his own.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTTzvika Manes, in Row 1, a banking executive returning from an exhilarating two-week family vacation in Japan, the early fulfillment of his 11-year-old daughter\u2019s wish for her bat mitzvah.And Shota Musaev, a dentist in Row 13 who was returning from China with his wife after a weeklong trip.But it was Mr. Manes\u2019s wife, Tali, whose horrified screams upon witnessing the carnage in the flight deck had served as the alarm that propelled ordinary passengers into action.And it was the plane\u2019s pilot, Capt. Smit Machchhar, who, pushing himself to unlock the cockpit door even as he was on the floor fighting for his life, had made it possible for those passengers to save all 182 souls on board.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThis article is based on interviews with more than a dozen passengers on Flight 1073 and the accounts that other passengers gave to Israeli television stations, as well as an account that Captain Machchhar gave to his country\u2019s prime minister, Narendra Modi, on Friday.ImageAsaf Rajuan, right, hugged another passenger as they arrived at Ben-Gurion International Airport.Credit...Ariel Schalit\/Associated PressSome of the Israelis said they remembered feeling the kind of beleaguered helplessness that they felt on Oct. 7, 2023, during the Hamas-led attack on Israel, and how ordinary Israelis had rushed to defend themselves and each other when the government failed to protect them.Some also said the situation called to mind the 9\/11 attacks, and propelled them to act without hesitation, much like those on United Flight 93 who had raced forward to confront that doomed plane\u2019s four hijackers.Nearly all the passengers were Israelis making their way home from far-flung trips across Asia or Africa to a nation at war. Some said they had occasionally felt the sting of anti-Israel sentiment or antisemitism abroad, felt the need to hide Star of David necklaces, or told people they were from another country. Waiting to board her flight in a Dubai airport lounge, Ms. Manes said her eldest daughter, Daniella, heard a television report about Israeli settler violence, got upset and took a seat in a far corner of the room.But the connecting flight to Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv \u2014 on an airline that had continued flying to Israel when many others hadn\u2019t \u2014 meant being surrounded by fellow Israelis, fellow Jews, fellow Hebrew speakers.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTIt should have been possible, at last, to let one\u2019s guard down.\u2018Absolute Horror\u2019The three-hour flight began uneventfully. Almog Itali, 52, returning from Japan with his wife and two teenage children, chose a film from the seat-back video system: \u201cSend Help,\u201d a horror film about the aftermath of a plane crash on a remote island.Miryam Ochayon, 24, in a middle seat in Row 6, was on her way home after 10\u00bd months of solo traveling around Asia, from Mongolia to the Philippines, on the sort of post-military odyssey that is an Israeli rite of passage.VideoScreams and, later on, cheers could be heard in videos recorded by Miryam Ochayon. Ms. Ochayon\u2019s footage also captured Asaf Rajuan, a passenger who intervened in the pilot attack, pumping his fist in celebration after the plane\u2019s emergency landing.CreditCredit...Miryam Ochayon, via ReutersShe was returning home in part because she had been scheduled for reserve duty in the coming weeks, and also to attend her family\u2019s memorial service on Sunday for her brother, Evyatar Ochayon Abukasis, a sergeant who was killed at Kissufim on the Gaza border on Oct. 7, 2023, just before his scheduled discharge.Raised in an ultra-Orthodox family in Jerusalem, Ms. Ochayon had left that lifestyle behind as a teenager. She still made a habit of saying the Jewish traveler\u2019s prayer before takeoff but for some reason, she didn\u2019t think to recite it when lifting off from Dubai, just after 7 a.m., she recalled.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTMs. Ochayon said she quickly fell asleep, her head on her seat\u2019s tray table.The Manes family, sitting in the first two rows, were exhausted from their all-night journey back from Tokyo, but still savoring what had been a particularly sweet trip.Daniella, who had developed an obsession with Japan at age 6, had made a visual presentation with the Canva app to persuade her parents to make the trip and specifying everywhere the family should go: \u201cculinary experiences\u201d like sushi, cotton candy and matcha, \u201cfashion highlights\u201d like Brandy Melville and other stores in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. (The 7-Eleven was overhyped, but everything else was a hit, her mother said.)A French toast breakfast was served around an hour into the flight, but Tali Manes slept through it. About an hour later, a little after 9 a.m. Dubai time, she was on her feet, waiting for her Nina, a few days shy of 6, outside the bathroom just behind the flight deck and galley.Suddenly, Ms. Manes said she heard \u201ca noise you don\u2019t usually hear\u201d coming from inside the flight deck \u2014 \u201csomething knocking on the door.\u201dShe turned to a backup pilot sitting a few feet away and told him something was wrong. \u201cHe was on his iPad and didn\u2019t understand what I wanted,\u201d she said. \u201cI said to him, \u2018Go check.\u2019 I pulled him by the hand. I\u2019m not an impolite person, I mean I would never do something like that. But there was this apathy.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe man reached for the flight deck\u2019s door. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t locked,\u201d Ms. Manes said. \u201cThat was our great luck.\u201d\u201cWhat we saw there,\u201d she said, \u201cwas absolute horror.\u201dMs. Manes said she saw one of the pilots stabbing the other, with a knife of some kind, though she could not describe it in any detail.The victim collapsed, and the attacker \u201ckept stabbing him and stabbing him,\u201d she said.She said she started screaming: \u201cHe\u2019s stabbing the pilot!\u201d\u2018I Couldn\u2019t Let All of Them Die\u2019Inside the flight deck, Captain Machchhar, a 17-year flight veteran \u2014 on the floor, badly wounded and still being attacked \u2014 could feel the plane plunging to earth.ImageAn undated photo, released by Israel\u2019s Foreign Ministry, of Capt. Smit Machchhar.Credit...Israel's Foreign Ministry, via AFPAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\u201cI was so badly hurt that I had fallen to the ground,\u201d he told Mr. Modi in the video released by the prime minister\u2019s office. \u201cBut I knew I had to act,\u201d he added. \u201cI could feel the aircraft was going down.\u201dHe reached for the door. \u201cI was doing it to save myself, but I also knew I couldn\u2019t let all of them die,\u201d he said.\u201cI told myself, \u2018this is the last push, Smit, do it. The door is right there.\u2019 And then I somehow opened it.\u201d\u2018We Acted on Pure Instinct\u2019Mr. Hayoun, the plumber, 50, heard Ms. Manes scream \u201cHe\u2019s stabbing him!\u201dHis first thought, he said, was that one passenger was attacking another.\u201cAnd at the very moment I stand up and step out of my seat, the plane banks \u2014 banks very sharply to the left \u2014 and then levels out again,\u201d he told Kan 11, Israel\u2019s public broadcaster. \u201cThat shook me.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe lurch of the plane made him connect the plane\u2019s behavior to Ms. Manes\u2019s screams, he said. He told his wife and daughters to buckle up tightly. And he ran forward to the flight deck.Before he reached there, he said, the plane went into a steep dive that threw him sideways, onto the seats and against a cabin wall. \u201cThere was an insane G-force,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t lift myself up.\u201dA sharp drop in altitude\n \n \n \n30,000 feet\nThe plane dropped more than 17,000 feet in less than two minutes.\n20,000 feet\n10,000 feet\n8:00 a.m.\n8:10\n8:20\n8:30\n8:40\n8:50\n9:00\n30,000 feet\nThe plane dropped more than 17,000 feet in less than two minutes.\n20,000 feet\n10,000 feet\n8:00 a.m.\n8:15\n8:30\n8:45\n9:00\n \n Note: Times are local time in Saudi Arabia.Source: Flightradar24Josh Holder\/The New York TimesMs. Ochayon said that when the plane started to dive, it wasn\u2019t so much the angle of descent as the plane\u2019s acceleration that was unbearable. \u201cIt felt like 10 times a roller-coaster,\u201d she said. \u201cOur faces \u2014 melted.\u201dAt one point, she heard a loud cracking sound coming from the rear of the plane.Hila Evron-Cohen, 48, was sound asleep in Seat 26C, across the aisle from her husband, when the jolt of the plane woke her. She was returning with her husband and two teenage boys from Zanzibar and Tanzania, on the last leg of a five-flight trip home that had begun Tuesday morning in the Serengeti.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTImageHila Evron-Cohen, center, with her husband Eran, left, and children Oran and Hillel on the flight from Saudi Arabia to Israel after their original FlyDubai plane made an emergency landing.Credit...via Hila Evron-CohenAs the plane nose-dived, she said, she felt her mind and body separating \u2014 and felt a fear she hadn\u2019t experienced since Oct. 7. \u201cIt floods you,\u201d she said. \u201cIt paralyzes you.\u201dAt the front of the cabin, Mr. Hayoun felt the plane level off slightly. Regaining his balance, he made his way to the flight deck door.The backup pilot was standing there, holding the door handle but doing nothing, he said. Other passengers corroborated this, saying it appeared that the backup pilot was too stunned to act.Mr. Hayoun said he pushed past him and saw the captain on the floor just inside the door, and the first officer leaning with his knees on the instrument panel.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTHe said he grabbed the first officer by the throat, put him in a chokehold and pulled him backward \u2014 all while shouting for help.Ms. Manes said her husband, Tzvika, 48, had fallen to the floor next to her from the force of the plane\u2019s motion. \u201cWe looked into each other\u2019s eyes, and I will never forget that look,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd he stood up to help.\u201dHe grabbed their daughter from the bathroom, returned her to his wife, and joined the fray.Mr. Rajuan, 44, ran forward, too. \u201cWe acted on pure instinct,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t think.\u201dMr. Musaev, 47, said he had started to shoot video with his phone, thinking the plane was experiencing extreme turbulence, but quickly realized it was some kind of attack and ran to the front of the plane.In her seat, Ms. Ochayon took out her phone and started recording videos. The first was time-stamped 9:23 a.m. Dubai time \u2014 52 minutes before the plane was scheduled to land in Tel Aviv.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\u2018Everyone Did What Was Necessary\u2019Terror had taken hold throughout the cabin.Ms. Ochayon turned to the woman next to her and said, \u201cI can\u2019t die, I can\u2019t die \u2014 I can\u2019t do this to my mother, who already lost my brother.\u201dMs. Evron-Cohen said that her 13-year-old son, Hillel, began shouting to her: \u201cMom, I love you! Mom, I love you!\u201dShe understood then that she and her children were going to die.\u201cYou spend your whole life trying to protect your children,\u201d she said. \u201cThat they don\u2019t get hurt, that they aren\u2019t cold, that they aren\u2019t hot, that they\u2019re always comfortable, that they have food and clean things.\u201dNow she had no way to protect them. \u201cThat helplessness is something you cannot explain in words,\u201d she said.If the moment seemed to drag on forever for the passengers, in the flight deck, the struggle was quick.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe passengers overwhelmed the first officer and dragged him out the door into the galley.\u201cWe jumped on him,\u201d Mr. Manes said. \u201cThree guys.\u201dAt one point, Mr. Rajuan, blood streaming down his face from a laceration, walked back into the passenger cabin and shouted, \u201cWe won!\u201dImageIn a screen grab obtained from a video on social media Mr. Rajuan is seen with blood streaming down his face on board the flight.Credit...Social Media Via ReutersMr. Manes said that someone brought wired headsets to tie up the attacker\u2019s wrists and ankles, and a crew member brought heavy-duty zip ties.Mr. Musaev, the dentist, said he attached an oxygen mask to Captain Machchhar\u2019s face and tried to stanch his bleeding, pressing on his wounds with a shirt. \u201cHe had a deep head wound, his hands were all cut up and he had minor injuries on his body,\u201d he said. \u201cHe lost a lot of blood.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe pilot was conscious but his pulse was weakening. Mr. Musaev said he told a crew member, \u201cWe have to land as quickly as possible, because he won\u2019t survive.\u201dMr. Hayoun remained inside the flight deck along with the backup pilot. Mr. Hayoun told Israeli interviewers that he pulled back on the controls of the plane for a few seconds, before the backup pilot, by now roused from his seeming paralysis and also bleeding from a hand wound sustained during the struggle in the cramped flight deck, took control.Outside the flight deck, the other Israeli men guarded the cockpit door, refusing to let anyone pass, until a second backup pilot persuaded them to let him in.In a matter of a minute or two, several realizations had swept over the Israelis on board that were nearly as jarring to their states of mind as the plane\u2019s horrifying dive, twists and recovery had been to their bodies.The initial threat, and the terror it had caused, were over. But they also could not be sure that they were in the clear. Israelis accustomed to being ever vigilant in unfamiliar settings now became hypervigilant. They said they trusted no one.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\u201cThere was a great deal of fear that he might have accomplices,\u201d Mr. Musaev said of the flight officer. \u201cThat\u2019s what we were afraid of. We started telling people to spread out around the plane, so that nobody could pull out a knife and stab us, the women or the children.\u201dWith a new pilot flying the plane, Mr. Rajuan said that those fears did not dissipate.\u201cWe didn\u2019t know if the pilot was with us or not, we didn\u2019t know who was against whom. We even started suspecting the flight attendants,\u201d he said.\u201cUnderneath us was only desert,\u201d he added. \u201cWe were afraid we were being taken to a hostile country.\u201dEventually, the passengers quieted down. \u201cThere were no screams, no panic, no shrieking,\u201d Mr. Rajuan said. \u201cEveryone understood the situation we were in and what needed to be done, and everyone did what was necessary.\u201dThe new pilot steered the plane to a safe landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, at around 9:45 a.m., despite the fact that much of the plane\u2019s rudder had apparently broken off in midflight.Videos showed the passengers bursting out in songs of gratitude and pride: \u201cHashem Yitbarach,\u201d or \u201cMay God be praised,\u201d and \u201cAm Yisrael Chai,\u201d or \u201cThe people of Israel live.\u201dPragati K.B. and Pranav Baskar contributed reporting.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
    "published_at": "2026-10-02T15:11:50+00:00",
    "author_name": "David M. Halbfinger, Natan Odenheimer, Adam Rasgon, Johnatan Reiss, Aaron Boxerman",
    "site_name": "The New York Times",
    "section": "World",
    "publisher": "The New York Times Company",
    "ai_headline": "The Mother\u2019s Scream That Sent Passengers to the Rescue",
    "ai_simplified_title": "FlyDubai Passengers Overpower Attacker, Land Safely in Saudi Arabia",
    "ai_excerpt": "War in the Middle EastDiplomatic EffortsHouthi-Saudi ConflictU S Cost of WarVideo Oil ExportsThe Mother s Scream That Sent Passengers to the RescueA badly wounded Indian pilot managed to unlock the",
    "ai_subject_tags": [
        "Aviation Safety",
        "Terrorism",
        "Heroism",
        "Middle East",
        "Israel",
        "Saudi Arabia",
        "FlyDubai",
        "Aviation Incident",
        "Pilot Attack",
        "Emergency Landing"
    ],
    "ai_context_type": "News",
    "ai_context_details": {
        "tone": "informative",
        "perspective": "neutral",
        "audience": "general",
        "credibility_indicators": [
            "interviews_with_passengers",
            "accounts_from_television_stations",
            "captain_account_to_prime_minister",
            "eyewitness_interviews",
            "video_footage_referenced",
            "flight_data_cited",
            "eyewitness_quotes",
            "social_media_evidence"
        ]
    },
    "ai_source_vector": null,
    "ai_confidence_score": 0.9999999999999999,
    "ai_extraction_metadata": {
        "extracted_at": "2026-10-02T20:01:37.655569Z",
        "ai_model": "gemini-2.5-flash",
        "extraction_method": "automated",
        "content_length": 6024,
        "metadata_prompt_body_chars": 6024,
        "metadata_prompt_truncated": false,
        "url": "https:\/\/nytimes.com\/2026\/10\/02\/world\/middleeast\/flydubai-attack-timeline.html",
        "existing_metadata": {
            "author_name": null,
            "published_at": null,
            "domain_name": "nytimes.com",
            "site_name": null,
            "section": null,
            "publisher": null
        },
        "openai_refusal_gemini_fallback": false,
        "chunking_used": true,
        "total_chunks": 3,
        "chunk_merge_method": "comprehensive",
        "merged_at": "2026-10-02T20:01:43.295083Z"
    }
}

{
    "extracted_at": "2026-10-02T20:01:37.655569Z",
    "ai_model": "gemini-2.5-flash",
    "extraction_method": "automated",
    "content_length": 6024,
    "metadata_prompt_body_chars": 6024,
    "metadata_prompt_truncated": false,
    "url": "https:\/\/nytimes.com\/2026\/10\/02\/world\/middleeast\/flydubai-attack-timeline.html",
    "existing_metadata": {
        "author_name": null,
        "published_at": null,
        "domain_name": "nytimes.com",
        "site_name": null,
        "section": null,
        "publisher": null
    },
    "openai_refusal_gemini_fallback": false,
    "chunking_used": true,
    "total_chunks": 3,
    "chunk_merge_method": "comprehensive",
    "merged_at": "2026-10-02T20:01:43.295083Z"
}