Flydubai hijacking: Passengers recount fighting crew during mid-air crisis

A mid-air nightmare

Real talk: the vibes on that recent Flydubai flight were highkey catastrophic. What started as a standard trip turned into a total horror movie when the co-pilot, identified as Hamam al-Hammami, allegedly went after the captain with a crash ax.

Two Israeli passengers, banking executive Tzvika Manes and real estate pro Daniel Schlichter, were among the civilians who stepped up. Manes, who was traveling with his wife and three daughters, told the New York Post that he and two other men—plumber Yaniv Hayoun and Asaf Rajuan—rushed the cockpit after the injured captain, Capt. Smit Machchhar, managed to open the door.

The crew’s confusing move

After the group pinned the co-pilot down and secured him with zip ties and headphone wires, things got weird. According to Manes and Schlichter, the flight crew started demanding they untie the attacker. “They were saying to free the terrorist—we got instantly suspicious of them,” Schlichter explained.

Understandably, the passengers weren't having it. They shut down the crew’s requests, telling them, “Now the policy is we’re in charge and you do what we say.” Fearing a potential conspiracy, the passengers forced the crew to sit in the middle of the plane away from the cockpit, while a “big guy” was stationed to guard the door until reserve pilots could take control.

Surviving the drop

It was a literal life-or-death situation. Schlichter recalled the plane nosediving 17,000 feet in seconds, an experience he described as “the longest minute I’ll ever have in my life.” Thanks to Hayoun’s quick thinking—who reportedly used techniques he saw on the TV show Air Disasters to stabilize the plane—the flight eventually landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

While the crew hasn’t been accused of helping the co-pilot, Flydubai said in a statement that they are cooperating fully with government authorities as the investigation plays out. For the passengers, it’s giving major miracle vibes. Many have been left shaken, with Manes noting that some travelers refused to fly back until they received security clearance from the Mossad.

Why it matters

This incident is a terrifying look at how quickly a commercial flight can turn into a battleground, and it raises serious questions about cabin security protocols and crew accountability during emergencies.