After the initial relief that a Fly Dubai flight carrying Israelis had not been hijacked, investigators are now examining the possibility that the pilot attempted suicide and tried to crash the plane with all aboard.
According to accounts now reaching the media, Israeli passengers and the co-pilot helped avert catastrophe. The Israeli passengers are waiting in Saudi Arabia for a replacement aircraft. Some are wearing blood-stained shirts after helping to bring the chaos inside the cabin under control.
Miriam, who was on the Fly Dubai flight, recounted: "We heard screaming on the plane. Then they opened the cockpit, we saw blood everywhere, and someone had stabbed the pilot with a box cutter. We felt like we were about to crash. I screamed 'Shema Yisrael.'"
In an interview she gave to i24NEWS, she said: "There was a doctor and a nurse here who gave first aid to the pilot. The Israelis neutralized the attacker together with the crew, and we made an emergency landing. There were moments when we thought we weren't getting out of this alive."
