‘Everyone Was Screaming’: Flydubai Passengers Describe Mid-Air Attack and Desperate Cockpit Fight

• Passengers on Flydubai flight FZ1073 described the terrifying moment the plane dropped more than 17,000 feet over Saudi Arabia
• One pilot stabbed the other mid-flight in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an apparent attempt to crash the plane
• Survivors shared their harrowing accounts with CNN after the flight was diverted to Tabuk Airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia

Passengers aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073 have spoken out about the moment they believed they were going to die, after one pilot stabbed the other mid-flight on 1 October 2026.

The flight departed Dubai International Airport at 03:05 GMT, bound for Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel, carrying at least 150 people. About two and a half hours into the journey, the aircraft dropped more than 17,000 feet in under two minutes over Saudi Arabia. For those on board, those few minutes were nothing short of terrifying. One passenger said:

"We just felt the plane drop completely and start spinning a little. The plane tilts, it tilts to the other side, and we start falling. Everyone was screaming. There were children crying."

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Another passenger described the physical force of the descent.

"You feel the G-force on them. You feel it. You squeezed into the chair."

Cockpit chaos and a desperate fight to survive

Confusion quickly spread through the cabin as passengers were told the unthinkable: a pilot had attacked the other pilot. One survivor recalled:

"I saw a lot of fear, people running to the cockpit. Two or three people rushed inside when someone screamed, 'stabbing, stabbing.' I saw people coming towards us with blood on their clothes."

According to reports by the BBC, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later confirmed that an Israeli passenger and a crew member broke into the cockpit and overpowered the attacker. The stabbed pilot, Indian national Captain Smit Machchhar, was taken to hospital in a stable condition and hailed by Netanyahu as a "true hero" who saved 174 lives.

For the survivors, the emotional weight of what they experienced was still raw. One passenger said:

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"I almost touched God. I started to speak with God. It was just like death in front of our eyes. I just can't describe how frightening it was."

View the TikTok video here.

Viewers divided online

Reactions to the CNN TikTok video were deeply mixed:

@Don wrote:

"These comments that it was staged — are you kidding me? What is happening to the world. What a blessing these people survived."

@henri🇩🇰 added:

"Running to the cockpit, while the plane is in such a fast descent, which would mean anything not strapped down would be thrown to the ceiling. Please show me how they did that."

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Source: Briefly News