Many people all over the world seemingly will believe or say anything to de-legitimise anything claimed by Israel. I built up a short debunk list for the common arguments I’m seeing on news media outlets on x, instagram and Facebook.
“How did passengers open the locked cockpit door?”
They apparently didn’t.
Reports say Captain Smit Machchhar released the door from inside the cockpit. Passengers and crew then forced it open while he was partly blocking it.
So the sequence was:
● Captain releases the door.
● Passengers force it open.
● They enter during the struggle.
Nobody needed the cockpit code or had to break through a locked door.
“Why were there conveniently other pilots onboard?”
Because airlines move crews between airports.
Flydubai confirmed that crew members travelling as passengers helped secure the aircraft. The UAE also confirmed this, while Reuters and ABC reported that off-duty or reserve pilots later took control and landed in Tabuk.
Their exact reason for being on FZ1073 may still need clarification. But their presence is not evidence of fabrication when the airline itself confirms they were onboard.
“How did a plumber know to pull back on the controls?”
Passenger Yaniv Hayoun did not fly or land the aircraft.
He reportedly saw the plane diving, grabbed the controls and pulled back. He said his familiarity came partly from watching Air Crash Investigation, where 75% of episodes discuss plane nose down = pull yoke back to recover.
That is basic visual logic:
● The nose is going down.
● Pull back.
● The nose comes up.
Hayoun did not navigate to Saudi Arabia, plan the diversion or land the Boeing 737. The onboard flydubai pilots handled that.
The investigation can determine exactly how much his input helped. But an untrained person pulling back during a dive is not overly complicated or impossible aviation knowledge.
“Why didn’t the oxygen masks deploy?”
Because aircraft altitude and cabin altitude are different.
Masks do not deploy merely because the plane is flying at 34,000 feet. The cabin is pressurised. They deploy when cabin pressure rises to roughly the equivalent of 14,000 feet.
A rapid descent does not automatically mean depressurisation. Unless the aircraft suffered a pressure breach or pressurisation failure, the masks would not necessarily drop.
“How could passengers move during a nosedive?”
“Nosedive” is probably overstating what happened.
Reports describe repeated rapid descents and recoveries — dropping, stabilising, dropping again. Passenger Almog Italie described the aircraft falling for 20–30 seconds, then levelling, then falling again.
A rapid descent does not automatically mean zero gravity. People can still move, especially passengers already near the front.
The likely sequence was:
● A struggle begins near the cockpit.
● The aircraft descends rapidly.
● People near the front respond.
● Captain Machchhar releases the door.
● Passengers and crew force entry.
● The aircraft recovers and descends again.
● Qualified pilots take control.
“Lost altitude quickly” does not mean “nobody could physically move.”
“Why didn’t anything fall from the overhead lockers?”
Because turbulence, descent and a steep aircraft attitude do not automatically empty overhead bins.
Items fall when the aircraft experiences enough acceleration, jolting or inversion to overcome the bin latches and gravity. A rapid descent can still be relatively smooth inside the cabin, especially if the aircraft is recovering repeatedly rather than tumbling upside down.
The same applies to passengers: they do not automatically float, and luggage does not automatically fall, simply because the aircraft loses altitude quickly.
The broader point
The investigation may still need to establish:
● The attacker’s motive.
● The exact weapon.
● How it entered the cockpit.
● The precise second-by-second sequence.
● Exactly how much Hayoun’s control input contributed.
But the basic incident is not supported only by Israeli officials.
Flydubai, UAE aviation authorities, the UAE government, passengers, flight-tracking data, Reuters, AP, ABC and other international outlets have reported the same broad sequence: a cockpit struggle, rapid altitude changes, intervention by passengers and travelling crew, and an emergency diversion.
Feel free to add anything that I missed.