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

What the report says

Al Jazeera reported that Flydubai Flight FZ1073, traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday, plunged dramatically after a confrontation in the cockpit. The airline said the aircraft lost about 17,000 feet in under two minutes before crew and passengers regained control, preventing what could have been a crash. The story identifies Indian captain Smit Machchhar as the pilot who helped save the plane after he was attacked by his copilot, and says 174 people were on board.

According to the account, Machchhar later described from a hospital bed in Saudi Arabia how he used his last moments of movement to open the cockpit door despite being stabbed. Once the door opened, passengers and crew rushed forward, restrained the copilot and took over the flight deck. Several passengers, including Israeli travelers cited in the report, described panic in the cabin and said one passenger briefly handled the controls while the situation was brought under control.

The article also notes reactions from political leaders in India, Israel and the United States, who praised the captain and some passengers as heroes. Machchhar was reported to be recovering in Abu Dhabi after initial treatment in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. The incident matters because it highlights both the risk of in-flight violence in a locked-cockpit environment and the narrow margin by which a major disaster was avoided.