A dramatic animated simulation recreating the attack aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073 has gone viral online, showing the moments in which the wounded captain and Israeli passengers prevented a catastrophe over Saudi Arabia.
The roughly one-minute clip, shared on X by @Adi13, follows the sequence described by Israeli officials and passengers: the co-pilot attacks the captain with a blade, the two struggle over the controls, and the captain falls to the cockpit floor as the jet plunges toward the ground. The captain manages to unlock the cockpit door, a passenger bursts in and grabs the attacker from behind, and a hand on the controls pulls the plane out of its dive. The video ends with the aircraft in level flight and a Star of David glowing in the clouds.
The real events unfolded Wednesday on a Dubai to Tel Aviv flight carrying 174 passengers. Israeli officials say the Omani first officer stabbed Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, and tried to crash the plane, sending it into a dive of thousands of feet. Despite serious wounds, Machchhar released the cockpit door. Israeli passengers, cabin crew and off-duty pilots traveling on the flight then overpowered the attacker.
Passenger Yaniv Hayun, a plumber with no flying experience, said he pulled back on the controls as the plane dove, using what he had learned from watching the TV series Air Crash Investigation. Off-duty pilots on board then took over and landed the plane safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
