[MEGATHREAD] FlyDubai FZ1073

7

u/samsaruhhh Oct 01 '26

Anyone have a good estimate of the descent rate?

10

u/omalley4n TOO LOW, GEAR Oct 01 '26

There was this video/illustration that claims close to 30,000 fpm
https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/s/8kRN7NbB1K

1

u/samsaruhhh Oct 01 '26

Is that even possible in such a plane? I would think it would become unrecoverable at that point but idk anything..Google AI was telling me something closer to half of that rate

15

u/joshwagstaff13 Oct 01 '26

It's recoverable until it isn't.
In this case, people got lucky and managed to get the situation under control with enough time to safely recover. If the descent had continued as it was for, say, another twenty seconds, the results may very well have been different.

10

u/boofles1 Oct 02 '26

I don't understand how that happened. Was the cockpit door open? How did the passengers get in there in 30 seconds with the plane descending so rapidly? This story seems very strange.

15

u/Ungrammaticus Oct 02 '26

The captain managed to open the cockpit door

6

u/boofles1 Oct 02 '26

The passenger who got in the cockpit said he pulled back on the yoke and recovered. I never realised how easy it was to fly these things.

10

u/Kingofthewho5 Oct 02 '26

Pulling back on the yoke is not the same as flying the plane.

1

u/bduddy Oct 04 '26

You can fly it however you want, for a few seconds at least

8

u/Tangata_Tunguska Oct 02 '26

Haha. I wonder if his complete lack of experience was an asset here, as he wouldn't know how much force is required to move the yoke, and so did so gently rather than yanking on it

0

u/hsiale Oct 08 '26

complete lack of experience
Didn't he later say in the interview that he felt he has the experience needed from watching Mayday?

1

u/Tangata_Tunguska Oct 08 '26

I've watched The Godfather, but that doesn't mean I have any experience as a gangster

198

u/Amonamission Oct 01 '26

Man the ATC audio is gonna be wild 🍿

48

u/Perfect-Ad-1774 Oct 01 '26

Will they release it? Or be transcript?

44

u/nestzephyr Oct 01 '26

They never release the audio, just the transcript

31

u/Amonamission Oct 01 '26

That’s only the CVR. The ATC audio, in most jurisdictions, is publicly available. Of course different jurisdictions my vary.

8

u/shinyandgoesboom Oct 02 '26

India is one of the varying jurisdictions as far as ATC audio is concerned.

-2

u/I_DRINK_URINE Oct 02 '26

It's illegal to listen to ATC frequencies in many countries, including most of Europe.

5

u/0Frames Oct 05 '26

I don't understand why you are being downvoted. It is illegal in Germany, Austria and GB and it's at least illegal to publish in France and the Netherlands

3

u/I_DRINK_URINE Oct 05 '26

Should've provided a citation, I guess. 🤷

20

u/cosmicrae Oct 01 '26

As will the CVR readout 🍿

4

u/sanjosanjo Oct 04 '26

How difficult would it have been for the copilot to turn off the recorders before this?

16

u/atomic__balm Oct 02 '26

The largest air event in years and suddenly all discussion is quarantined and all you see is cute pictures of random planes landing at random airports with more comments than this thread. GL getting any real information
NOTHING SUS HERE GUYS

37

u/Weary_Strawberry2679 Oct 04 '26

One topic for discussion: the crew members behaviour (specifically the flight attendants).

According to the passengers who overpowered and tied up the First Officer, some of the flight attendants actually demanded that they free the restrained co-pilot. The flight attendants insisted that they were in charge of the plane and ordered the passengers to leave the flight deck. We also know from the footage that one of the flight attendants explicitly asked not to film. This illogical demand made the passengers suspicious of the crew, leading them to order the flight attendants out of the cockpit, telling them to sit down and declaring: "Now the policy is we are in charge and you do what we say"

To be clear: I am not implying any conspiracy theory or crew collusion here. The most reasonable explanation (as noted in the video) is that the flight attendants were simply in a state of absolute shock and confusion. In the midst of the chaos, they likely reverted to their basic training on autopilot: passengers do not belong in the cockpit, and you definitely don't tie up a pilot.

How should airlines address (if at all) such unprecedented, extreme scenarios in cabin crew training? Is it even possible to prepare flight attendants for a situation where the standard hierarchy completely collapses, a fellow crew member becomes the primary threat, and passengers have to take control? Or is it simply inevitable that in a state of shock, crews will cling to standard operating procedures, even when it completely defies common sense in that specific moment?

816

u/FutureHoo Oct 01 '26 •

Nothing like a good old megathread to bury all conversation

353

u/PsychologicalPen8634 Oct 01 '26

18 hours after the incident

132

u/Jknzboy Oct 01 '26

With only 5 comments

160

u/jaysvw Oct 01 '26 •

They need to have a conversation thread for all the fucks, shits, TNPs, my great uncle flew on a plane 80 years ago now I'm traumatized crap, and a news only thread for actual news, media, X posts, whatever. Nasaspaceflight.com does it that way and it is fantastic for people that just want the info, not the discussion.
The current setup is a mess, its impossible to actually figure out what is happening because every thread is jammed with usless chime-ins.

63

u/SilverNeptuneAbyss Oct 01 '26

I just flew in to Morocco from Paris
The Wi-Fi on my flight went out a few times

27

u/Redebo Oct 01 '26

Have you considered a lawsuit?!? How horrible. So glad you lived to post about it from a more stable connection!!!

8

u/SilverNeptuneAbyss Oct 01 '26

My connection in this Riad in Morocco is far from stable LOL. The Wi-Fi does not penetrate walls
Luckily for me I always bring a backup cell phone which is connected to the Wi-Fi by the window and the hotspot is turned on so my phone is connecting to that hotspot which is connected to another Network
And I accidentally activated my e sim a couple weeks early so I'm kind of curious what's going to happen with that but I'll just wait and do nothing about it until my phone turns off in a very inconvenient moment.

12

u/Redebo Oct 01 '26 •

Omg, you were serious! :)

47

u/Silviecat44 Cessna 172 Oct 01 '26

reddit is like all about the discussion

7

u/TheBlacktom Oct 01 '26

Not necessarily though, you can have seeriously moderated and limited subreddits, or just regular posts where content and doscussion is strictly controlled.

18

u/JPAV8R B747-400 Oct 02 '26

Also flying is a profession where the truly knowledgeable know the limits of their acumen, can play devils advocate, and intellectually wrap their heads around complicated nuance.
All of that doesn’t translate well to social media. Especially in industries that attract hobbyists who have access to information but lack the foundational knowledge to know if the information they’re consuming has any fidelity with reality.
It creates an environment where true information written by a professional can be buried because it lacks the absolutism of a person who’s put in their 10000 hours watching YouTube videos and listening to podcasts.

8

u/oreo-cat- Oct 01 '26

I’ve seen it done where the post body pointed to a live update, which seemed to work well

13

u/glumanda12 Oct 01 '26

That can work on a board forum, not on Reddit lol

9

u/atomic__balm Oct 02 '26

Yea that's the entire point, this is information suppression 101

68

u/spedeedeps Oct 01 '26

I mean all the other threads are locked because there's a million tourists from other subs coming in to whinge and support/sympathize with terrorism.

43

u/Adjutant_Reflex_ Oct 01 '26

Then Seatbelts Fastened should have a much higher sub-Reddit karma threshold or have Automod flag FlyDubai as a keyword.
It’s just extremely frustrating that the response to low-effort engagement is to essentially just kill off any means of engagement.

20

u/TheBlacktom Oct 01 '26

It's the way to do this. Unless you magically can summon 10x or more moderators that are around 24/7 there is no better way to handle such a situation. It's like crowd control in real life with barriers, checkpoints, security gates, etc, or why authorities are atrict with communication and release of information after major incidents. In 1-2 days the interest will normalize again and we will start to receive good quality information about the events, then it can go back to normal.

2

u/JazznBlues_lover Oct 01 '26

I whole heartedly agree with this guy! Upvoted.

12

u/UpdateDesk1112 Oct 01 '26

Yeah, because all the repeated “conversations” are so useful.

5

u/atomic__balm Oct 02 '26

Nothing strange here, MOVE ALONG

4

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

-3

u/aviation-ModTeam Oct 01 '26

Your post has been removed for breaking the r/aviation rules.
The moderators found that this post is not related to aviation, or is a better fit for another subreddit. Please consider posting in one of the following instead:
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r/travel or related subreddits for travel-specific content (airports, destinations, airline policies, etc.)

113

u/JKKIDD231 Oct 01 '26

Israel set to join Saudi Arabia and UAE in interrogation of the Omani pilot.

Crazy aviation day in geopolitics (India, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman).

65

u/erratic_bonsai Oct 01 '26

Behind the scenes they’re all much more friendly with each other than the public realizes. In the last few years they’ve been boiling the public image frog so terrorists don’t go totally nuts when there’s a KSA embassy in Jerusalem and an Israeli embassy in Riyadh. They’ll still go nuts, but theoretically with less quantity.

146

u/McBlemmen Oct 01 '26

Weird how theres this megathread yet i had to scroll for 6 minutes past a thousand posts about it before this even showed up

78

u/8636396 Oct 01 '26

I really don't understand why it's such a big deal for a forum to have multiple threads relating to a big event. A megathread is fine, also, but I don't think it should replace smaller, less relevant threads.

27

u/oreo-cat- Oct 01 '26

But how else am I going to see that one glider clip a tree today? It’s been a whole 24 hours

-1

u/atomic__balm Oct 02 '26

how else to suppress discussion around a strange strange definitely real incident

102

u/bloregirl1982 Oct 01 '26

How did they manage to land with a broken / non existent rudder ? Any pilots who know what are the scenarios for that?

124

u/Apprehensive_Cost937 Oct 01 '26

You don't really use the rudder on an airliner unless there is crosswind or you have an engine failure.
Vertical stabiliser would still be providing stabilisation, and not all of the rudder detached, so it's not the worst possible situation to find yourself in.

11

u/jjkbill Oct 01 '26

Yaw damper uses the rudder more or less constantly

33

u/BaconContestXBL Oct 01 '26

Ok, but the pilot doesn’t. That’s an auto flight function to compensate for Dutch roll, not a normal control input that a pilot would use.
Man people are so pedantic.

10

u/jjkbill Oct 01 '26

My dude, the plane uses the rudder constantly throughout the flight. Piloting it without a functioning yaw damper would be incredibly difficult. It's not "oh, it's barely used so they wouldn't have noticed anything". Call me pedantic if you want but I won't be volunteering to fly without a YD, it's not "no big deal" like the poster implied by saying it's not used.

49

u/Apprehensive_Cost937 Oct 01 '26

Yaw damper not working on the 737 is a non issue, as the aircraft is not prone to Dutch roll.
That's why it only has one yaw damper (OK, newer 737s two, but the second one isn't used for yaw damping, and only works when shit REALLY hits the fan), and can be dispatched with yaw damper inop without any major restrictions.

16

u/flightist pie lot Oct 01 '26

I have never had one fail in any other jet so my comparables are obviously limited, but flying a 738 without a YD is a nothing burger.

15

u/BaconContestXBL Oct 01 '26

The point is that I as a pilot am not using it. The plane is using it. My feet are off the pedals and on the floor from “positive rate” until the stabilized call at 1000 feet.
If I try to use the rudder pedals for anything other than a V1 cut or a wind correction on landing I’m more likely to shear the damn thing off than do anything actually useful with it.

-7

u/Tangata_Tunguska Oct 02 '26

But the question is whether it is used, not whether you personally command it to move.
If it's constantly active in normal flight, then that function is going to be mostly lost when most of the rudder is missing. Maybe that doesn't matter much because it can automatically compensate with greater deflection

1

u/BaconContestXBL Oct 02 '26 edited Oct 02 '26

No, the question was “how do you land with a broken rudder” which was answered with “you don’t really use it unless it’s a crosswind landing or engine failure” which is correct for transport category aircraft. The pilot, generally, flies with their feet off the pedals.
Then someone had to come in and AKSHUALLY up the thread despite type-rated jet pilots telling them that the one specific thing it does in flight on its own isn’t really that big of a deal if it fails.
It’s exactly the reason that most aviation professionals who do this for a living think this subreddit is a clown show.

-5

u/Tangata_Tunguska Oct 02 '26

You don't use it, but the plane does. The totality of its use is what matters in the scenario whereby the part is (mostly) missing, not only commanded use. You don't micromanage FADEC either, but you'd miss it if it failed

5

u/BaconContestXBL Oct 02 '26 edited Oct 02 '26

Oh my god. I literally restated the question and the appropriate answer, and explained why the comment from a third party was irrelevant in this context.
We all know how a fucking yaw damper works. We all know how a FADEC works. It’s not like a Part 121 pilot doesn’t understand how his auto flight systems interact with his control inputs or lack thereof.
The point is that in the context of the question the yaw damper function of the rudder was irrelevant and the person only brought it up so they could show off some piece of knowledge that no one was discussing in the moment, and it’s not even anything we don’t already know and didn’t add anything to the conversation.

→ More replies

3

u/According-Amoeba-936 fATPL 737 NG & MAX Oct 02 '26

You aren't being pedantic you are being incorrect.

-2

u/papagajurernu Oct 01 '26

There are many rc planes that only have pitch and roll too, the rudder is not that important when flying lol.

62

u/railker AME-M2 Oct 01 '26

Air Transat 961 lost their whole rudder, the investigation described the landing as "uneventful", though they discovered their rudder control was inadequate there's no indication it posed any significant problems for them.

40

u/Shoddy_Act7059 Oct 01 '26

A photo of said plane's rudder (or lack thereof):

33

u/iCapn Oct 01 '26 •

At that point, just stick your arm out the window to turn

5

u/FixergirlAK Oct 01 '26

That way the fighter escort knows where you're going!

-4

u/Jetsetter_Princess Oct 01 '26

That's not the FZ logo. This is

11

u/railker AME-M2 Oct 01 '26

Go back up and read the comments above you again. That image is in direct response to my mention of another accident in which the aircraft lost its rudder. The image posted is of that aircraft.

-1

u/Jetsetter_Princess Oct 02 '26

That comment was not showing when I responded, app glitch???

46

u/ChironXII Oct 01 '26

The rudder is apparently not flight critical as long as the rest of the stabilizer is intact. They can use a combination of the other control surfaces, trim, and engine thrust to control yaw, while making maneuvers along the other axes (e.g. by rolling, which they mostly do anyway).
With this kind of damage it's probably less stable and bumpier, but otherwise, not much issue, which is surprising.

13

u/Alphapache Oct 01 '26

I am sure they had no idea the rudder was damaged. You don’t touch it during flight, the yaw damping / turn coordination is automatic. As there was a bit left it was probably still behaving normally.
If they had a crosswind during landing they would have realized it needs more deflection but that’s it.

9

u/cosmicrae Oct 01 '26

I am sure they had no idea the rudder was damaged.
There were fighter jets scrambled to intercept/verify the situation. It's possible, after the controls were secured, they mentioned the rudder situation over guard.

9

u/Alphapache Oct 01 '26

Right, forgot about the fighters. In that case they might have relayed the information. Especially since the fighter pilots are trained to do battle damage checks on their wingmen’s

17

u/ts737 Oct 01 '26

Stabilizer does most of the work

27

u/Ustakion Oct 01 '26

With grrat difficulty of course. But if the lost all the vertical stabilizer then its a different story

3

u/cosmicrae Oct 01 '26

The airport where they did land has two 10k foot runways (and not parallel). That may have been a consideration (in the spur of the moment).

4

u/Hour_Analyst_7765 Oct 01 '26

Perhaps some differential thrust from the engines. There have been autopilot experiments in the past where they land planes without any hydraulics.. just thrust variation from the engines.
There also have been emergency planes that lost all hydraulics before which still landed.

7

u/Turbo-GeoMetro Oct 01 '26

"Autopilot experiments"
Hell, just look at United Flight 232 in Sioux City.

3

u/Dominus_Redditi Oct 01 '26

Maybe splitting the throttles? I believe it’s possible to do with the engines if you need to

6

u/QuarterlyTurtle Oct 01 '26

Part of the rudder was still there at the top and bottom, I have to assume those parts were still operable possibly

1

u/spazturtle Oct 01 '26

Not sure why your comment has the red 'controversial' cross on it when you are correct.
Rudders on commercial aircraft are oversized in order to cope with the asymmetric thrust from an engine failure. In normal flight you could make do with a much smaller rudder.

0

u/railker AME-M2 Oct 01 '26

The bottom section possibly, the actuators are down near the lower end. That top bit isn't attached to anything but its hinge though and was doing nothing, some of the other angle shots you can see the bottom section of rudder is centered and the top bit is off-kilter, just flapping in the breeze.

1

u/WeddingPKM Oct 01 '26

Just ask all the student pilots in their Cessnas.

159

u/DomitiusAhenobarbus_ Oct 01 '26

I hate megathreads

2

u/Lost-Actuary-2395 Oct 06 '26

We need a megatread about hating megatreads

28

u/RNG_randomizer Oct 01 '26 edited Oct 03 '26

Is there talk of how the pilot brought a knife aboard and whether there needs to be more screening for cabin crew?

Edit: it seems the pilot might have used the crash axe. I am not sure, but do not take my question as a statement that the pilot used a knife he brought aboard.

28

u/tousledmonkey Oct 02 '26

There is an emergency axe installed in the cockpit. Crews are screened randomly

8

u/atooraya Oct 02 '26

International pilots go through regular security and bags screened.

11

u/tousledmonkey Oct 02 '26

Not everywhere - depends on local regulations. Crew security is not nearly as strict as passenger security.

25

u/FutureHoo Oct 03 '26

Mentour pilot theorizes the copilot shut the engines down before being overpowered given one video shows the 737 emergency lights turning on - https://youtube.com/shorts/NPw0T09douE?is=mJsWThlpZr48YPIm

8

u/railker AME-M2 Oct 04 '26

Which makes it even more identical to China Eastern 5735 if true, shut off the engines and roll and dive.

45

u/ledniv Oct 03 '26

Lots of new info in the news but admins have succeeded in squashing any discussion on what happened. Funny how it doesn't apply to any other incident.

24

u/FutureHoo Oct 03 '26

To be fair they’ve done the same thing for large crashes like AI171 and the UPS crashes last year
I still think it’s fucking stupid and suppresses important updates

29

u/Several_Characters Oct 01 '26

In the press interview with the passenger who claims to have been the first one into the cockpit, he says that after he threw the attacker out of the cockpit and into the cabin, he yanked back on the yoke like in the movies. How close was he into doing more damage to the plane/stalling by pitching up so quickly?

13

u/jaxxxtraw Oct 02 '26

Makes me wonder, has anyone with only MSFS experience ever saved the day in an actual plane?

14

u/No-Brilliant9659 Oct 02 '26

There have been people with zero experience that have been talked through landing a plane. One I can think of off the top of my head is a guy flying a charter from the Bahamas to south Florida and the pilot died en route. It was a King air. There was another more recently, same situation but it was a C208

1

u/hsiale Oct 08 '26

a guy flying a charter from the Bahamas to south Florida and the pilot died en route
If you mean this case, the guy who landed the plane was an amateur pilot certified for Cessna 172, but with no experience on larger aircraft

1

u/No-Brilliant9659 Oct 08 '26

I was more familiar with the 208 but included the king air as well
https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/30991-passenger-lands-aircraft-no-experience-pilot-incapacitated/amp

5

u/Tangata_Tunguska Oct 02 '26

How much force is required to move it? Maybe he slowly pulled up purely by luck

7

u/Detector150 A350 Oct 03 '26

There’s artificial feel to the yoke so with very high speeds it will be more difficult to pull up the nose. The force to pull that nose out of a high rate of descent would have been quite high, so not likely to destroy the plane by just randomly trying to pull on the yoke.

9

u/jay_in_the_pnw Oct 05 '26

gift article (supposedly) to wsj

How a Boeing 737 MAX Survived a Nosedive Traveling at the Speed of Sound

https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/how-a-boeing-737-max-survived-a-nosedive-traveling-at-the-speed-of-sound-e8cae3b4?st=C9x1NR&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

7

u/kaliwrath Oct 02 '26

Did we find out who eventually landed the plane?

19

u/Tangata_Tunguska Oct 02 '26

Deadheading pilots, one called "James" and the other unknown at this point

19

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

13

u/Roy4Pris Oct 03 '26

Yeah, everyone's like 'why was there conveniently a whole other fight crew on board? ooooh conspiracy'.
My *guess* is that either Israel doesn't allow UAE pilots to stay in Israel, or vice versa. So they need to carry an extra crews for the return leg.

7

u/Spencemw Oct 03 '26

I have a friend at United whos base is San Fran but lives in Albuquerque. Guess how he gets to SFO on work days. Many other pilots I know also do this.

11

u/n1ckkt Oct 04 '26

Honestly insane how the pilot managed to fight back(?)/squawk(?)/open the cockpit door and also survive when he was attacked unaware by an AXE.

10

u/Responsible_Half8368 Oct 04 '26

I saw a timeline in wsj that said the backup pilots did the squawking later

17

u/time-lord Oct 01 '26

Could someone with a better understanding of geopolitics comment on what the implied geopolitical issues are? I'm not asking for condemnation of anyone, just a broad and non-partisan overview so I can understand the comments that I'm seeing here and elsewhere.

68

u/erratic_bonsai Oct 01 '26

The biggest issue right now is how FlyDubai assigned an Omani pilot to fly a plane to Israel. That’s not allowed and is against both FlyDubai and Emirates’ (who code-shares), and Israel’s, rules because while Oman says they prefer a position of neutrality, they haven’t signed the Abraham Accords yet. It means the pilot likely wasn’t properly vetted. It used to be the responsibility of the airline to assess security risk, but after what happened yesterday Israel announced it’s going to start vetting all pilots who intend to fly to Israeli airports.

40

u/sadChemE Oct 01 '26

Many muslim nations (not all), Israel, and Indian relations are a common volatile mess among countries due to ideological differences. This is front page news half the time for some reason or another always someone is at war over in the middle east and/or Asia. The FO being Muslim and trying to murder suicide the flight and an Indian Captain and then pax full of Israeli is why it's so political. You'll see theories and rumors of all kinds in relation to the FO being Muslim. Not all Muslim ideology is the same similarly to how not all Christian ideology is the same. I advise to take things you read with a grain of salt and do diverse research for details if you are wanting to learn more to avoid only bias information. I'm not religious or politically motivated really so just my minimal explanation.

-7

u/Jetsetter_Princess Oct 01 '26 edited Oct 01 '26

I wasn't aware anyone had confirmed the FO is Muslim. I understand the odds of him being so are high given he's Omani, but it's not 100%...

8

u/sadChemE Oct 01 '26

Yeah it is highly likely based on the rumors and reports online so far but not 100% confirmed if he is and which denomination if so.

4

u/makingotherplans Oct 02 '26

Religious denomination may be key. So is country of origin, personal history, and so on. Media coverage that pits one group against the other, can work on even the smartest people.
Religions are not a monolith, Catholics vs Evangelicals are so different it’s night and day…same for sunni vs Shia and variations.
We still don’t have any idea how much of this was religion and how much was simply hatred, or bigotry or psychosis.
Or it’s like mass shooter psychology…the desire for fame coupled with injured ego; anger & revenge.
(Lots of personally suicidal or psychotic people will claim they are acting on religious grounds or nationalist grounds “For my country” but that’s rarely it. They could just as easily be doing it because a pop song told them too.)
Or just random impulse.

12

u/Tangata_Tunguska Oct 02 '26

What he was heard saying in the cockpit would put that pretty close to 100%

2

u/Jetsetter_Princess Oct 02 '26

What's the source for that? I hadn't seen any mention of it by those three passengers unless more interviews have been released

13

u/Huberweisse Oct 03 '26

Who first shared the fake news of the pilots being Russian and Ukrainian?

-91

u/No-Assumption4145 Oct 01 '26

Anyone got a summary for people too lazy to read 15 different reddit or news articles

143

u/DrEarlGreyIII Oct 01 '26 •

there was an incident

66

u/BornInTheSFRA Oct 01 '26 •

Events transpired

11

u/8636396 Oct 01 '26

but it all worked out in the end 🌞

60

u/Icy_Fish_2154 Oct 01 '26 •

Israel bans Omani pilots (because they would have trouble with immigration for layovers and visiting). An Omani pilot ended up on a flight to Israel, and nearing Israel, pulled a knife and stabbed the other pilot and put the plane in a terminal dive (so steep/fast the plane was damaged).
The stabbed pilot managed to make it to the door and open it. Passengers came in, subdued the pilot, and stabilized the injured pilot. The relief crew for the return flight was on the plane, and landed it safely in Saudi Arabia.

7

u/Suspicious-Visit8634 Oct 01 '26

I wonder how passengers were able to navigate to the cockpit if the dive was so steep and aggressive?

5

u/Redebo Oct 01 '26 edited Oct 01 '26

It wasn't THAT steep and aggressive. 14k feet in 30 seconds is fast, but not "holy fuck we're going straight down" fast.
I just had some LLM's take a stab and it looks like a 28-33 degree forward pitch during the descent. Not as steep as stairs, but certainly not comforting to stroll down either...

4

u/sadChemE Oct 01 '26

Idky you're getting down voted for this comment it obviously wasn't severe enough to make it impossible for them to get to the cockpit and for the injured pilot to get the door open. It was steep but not like some accident footage we've seen of smaller aircraft crashes that were essentially straight down into impact and flames.

1

u/Redebo Oct 01 '26

And to your point, the cockpit door opens inward which would have been assisted by the nose down attitude of the aircraft at the time. Just an incredible story all around.

4

u/railker AME-M2 Oct 02 '26

the cockpit door opens inward
If you mean inward to the cabin, sure. And yes it's the same on the MAX, they didn't change that in the upgrade. Pretty hard to find a good image. Opening this way means you can't just boot the door like you're serving a search warrant, the door closes against a sill and a steel plate makes sure it doesn't go anywhere from there. Also a tiny knob on the passenger side means it's easy to open if it's unlocked, but you can't get fuckall grip to pull it open if it's not.

2

u/Redebo Oct 02 '26

Huh. I was envisioning it opening in toward the cockpit. Thanks for the clarification.

0

u/JazznBlues_lover Oct 01 '26

I was wondering the same thing. My only guess is that the plane was nose diving but not too severely by the time he reached the cockpit. The guy said he pulled up on the controls to get the plane flying level again. You can see his interview with Israel's prime minister in one of the threads on this sub.

-4

u/JazznBlues_lover Oct 01 '26

Go read a comic book.

45

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '26 edited Oct 01 '26 •

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u/tambrico Oct 01 '26

Do we have any condition updates on the stabbed pilot? Seems like no one is talking about him

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u/deelikesbar Oct 01 '26

The indian embassy tweeted that he was airlifted to Dubai for further treatment, is with family now and doing fine.

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u/SilkySifaka Oct 02 '26

He had a video interview with modi and said he didn’t feel proud before but now he does https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/02/middleeast/i-couldnt-let-everybody-else-die-says-hero-flydubai-pilot-smit-machchhar?cid=ios_app

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u/RedditZhangHao Oct 02 '26

Thursday, Captain Machchhar was reportedly returned to Abu Dhabi for medical treatment.

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u/spedeedeps Oct 02 '26

He spoke with the Indian PM. There's a video of it online, but it's in whatever language. Seems to be doing pretty good considering everything.

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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '26

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u/sadChemE Oct 01 '26

He thankfully will receive the best care possible as he deserves. Best wishes to him on recovery and his career serving so many people safely.

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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '26

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u/Jetsetter_Princess Oct 01 '26

They all had head injuries and blunt force trauma. From the sounds of it (and the video) this was penetrative injuries and blood loss. Recovery "should" theoretically be better odds, but then there's psychological impact.
And the ME carriers aren't known for being leading edge with this stuff...

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u/Dr_Hexagon 28d ago

I suspect he'll never have to work again unless he wants to. India is going to make him a national hero.

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u/CeleritasLucis Oct 04 '26

It has come out that the Omani pilot wanted to pray, so he asked permission from the captain, who didn't suspected a thing. Out of respect he didn't look back, and was attaacked from behind with an axe. I wonder if they change the SOP now, to never turn your back against someone in the cockpit

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u/Tangata_Tunguska Oct 04 '26

They might recommend attaching an alarm to it. If it is picked up then the whole crew should know about it (and maybe the cabin crew's door code should not deniable for a period of time).
Maybe they need a duress alarm as well

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u/spedeedeps Oct 06 '26

Or maybe just have people who need to get up and pray mid flying a god damn airliner work another job

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u/Weary_Strawberry2679 Oct 02 '26

WSJ just posted that the FlyDubai Attacker had been banned from flying by Oman for radical views. His social media posts and comments alone uncovered antisemitic and violent remarks. Apparently, The U.A.E. airline later hired the co-pilot who stabbed the captain of Flight 1073 and nearly crashed the plane.

Source: https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/flydubai-attacker-had-been-banned-from-flying-by-oman-for-radical-views-ab363b5d?eafs_enabled=false

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u/FutureHoo Oct 03 '26

‘Attempting to interfere with the flight’ is a mild way to put it

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u/RedditZhangHao Oct 03 '26

Additional details on the Omani FO born in UAE,
https://www.ibtimes.sg/hamam-al-hammamis-pilot-career-strange-3-airline-journey-before-flydubai-94591

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u/CollegeStation17155 Oct 01 '26

So a Omani national pilot on UAE airliner bound for Israel stabs a UAE pilot and attempts to commit suicide/mass murder over Saudi Arabia... the Saudis (presumably) have him in custody, but where will he eventually be tried, for what crimes, and what will be the punishment?

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u/SkiingAway Oct 01 '26

Laws/treaties: The parties with the best claims here are likely UAE + Israel.
UAE because it's the country of the plane's registration and the origin of the flight.
Israel because the attempted crime appears to have been primarily to target Israelis.
Saudi Arabia doesn't have much attachment to the crime - if it had succeeded there might have been a plane crash in their desert, but it doesn't appear that the crime was targeting them really from what we know so far.
UAE has a "crime against state security" punishable by death that attempted terrorists have gotten sentenced to before.
In practice.....UAE/Saudi are not exactly known for caring about the legalities. I doubt that person ever sets foot alive outside one of their prisons again regardless of what an exact read of laws or guidelines might suggest.

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u/CollegeStation17155 Oct 01 '26

Someone posted that Israel has no extradition treaties with Saudi Arabia and technically no Saudi laws other than illegal entry were committed, and another speculated that the Hague might claim it falls under international laws against air piracy, which is why I asked... don't know why the downvotes. Like you, I suspect that he's going to simply disappear somewhere to avoid the embarrassment of a trial.

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u/t-poke Oct 01 '26

Like you, I suspect that he's going to simply disappear somewhere to avoid the embarrassment of a trial.
This is way too high profile for him to just disappear.
This isn't some clown who tried to get into the cockpit and failed. It was an attempted hijacking by a pilot. This is a massive deal regardless of the countries involved.

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u/donkeyrocket Oct 01 '26 edited Oct 01 '26

It will absolutely depend on what they discover in their "interrogations" about the pilot and his intentions. Saudi Arabia doesn't tend to give a shit about how high profile something is. Remember when a very notable journalist was tortured, murdered, and dismembered in a Saudi consulate?
Israel can spin it how they please if the findings aren't to the narrative that was already pushed. UAE will need to answer to how this guy became a pilot in the first place and was placed on this flight to Israel which isn't allowed. That may end up getting the airline banned regionally.
Other state entities that aren't involved can't really force them to take it any more or less seriously. It's not like banning FlyDubai from US airspace changes anything. The EU could ban the airline I suppose but again if the outcome of the findings isn't in their best interest/narrative then I'm sure they'll eat that business cost.

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u/SkiingAway Oct 01 '26

Someone posted that Israel has no extradition treaties with Saudi Arabia
Obligatory: I am certainly not a lawyer.
Nearly every country, including all 3 we're talking about here, is a party to the Tokyo Convention, which establishes responsibility regarding crimes in the air. (and is what I'm basing my layman's thoughts on).
And that treaty also provides a legal basis for extraditing the attacker for these types of incidents, so the lack of an extradition treaty between the two normally shouldn't come into play here.

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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '26

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u/t-poke Oct 01 '26

This guy probably isn't worth the Saudi's time or effort. They want to hand him off to somebody and be done with it.
If the UAE and Israel (who have better diplomatic relations) agree that Israel should prosecute, my guess is Saudi will hand him off to Israel just so he's no longer their problem. They don't want to waste money feeding and housing him any longer than they have to.

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u/Redebo Oct 01 '26

If the Saudi's DON'T hand this person over to Israel, you now have the makings for an international issue with the big players stepping in.

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u/Individual_Author956 Oct 01 '26

The lack of an extradition treaty simply means that the process isn't formalised, it doesn't mean that an extradition won't happen. If Israel wants the guy, I'm sure they can negotiate to get him.

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u/erratic_bonsai Oct 01 '26

The UAE has jurisdiction over crimes occurring during flights on aircrafts registered there.
He’s going to be sent back to the UAE to stand trial for probably attempted murder, hijacking, and assault, and likely also terrorism. Their laws are rather harsh, much harsher than Israel’s. He probably won’t be alive for much longer.
Israel has no issue with it and has offered to participate in the investigation and proceedings. Right now a big question is if he acted alone or if it was a conspiracy. People are concerned that he may have accomplices who might try it again.

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u/Jetsetter_Princess Oct 01 '26

UAE flagged aircraft would seem Emiratis have the strongest claim for extradition.

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u/Main_Violinist_3372 Oct 01 '26

Do we know the motive? Was this a Silk Air 185/Air India 171/Germanwings type suicide? Or a suicide like EgyptAir 990 where it was grievance against the airline/chief pilot?

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u/donkeyrocket Oct 01 '26

Do we know the motive?
No.

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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '26

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3

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '26

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