A Bloody Attack on a FlyDubai Plane Headed to Israel, and a Terrifying Plunge
New York Times · LC · trust 72/100
“I don’t deserve to die like this,” said one passenger on Flight 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv. The motive of the cockpit stabbing remains unknown, officials said.
David M. Halbfinger reported from Jerusalem, and Aaron Boxerman, Natan Odenheimer and Adam Rasgon from Tel Aviv.
“The plane just started going up and down,” said Meital Zoller, a passenger on the FlyDubai plane. Soon, she said, “we started hearing screams.”
The shouts were coming from near the cockpit, said another passenger, Adam Polovincik. “We tried to be ‘cool’ for our kids,” Mr. Polovincik said in an interview.
Then the bottom dropped out. The plane, a 737, nose-dived at a sickening angle, overhead bins popped open, and luggage flew out. Passengers shrieked and prayed. Many were sure they were about to die.
What is clear so far is that there was a bloody clash in the cockpit miles above the desert of Saudi Arabia, that intervention by passengers and crew members saved the day, and that the roughly 170 people aboard endured minutes of mortal terror.
One of the plane’s pilots had attacked the other and was apparently trying to crash the plane, Israeli officials and passengers said. The authorities in the United Arab Emirates, where the flight originated, and Saudi Arabia, where the aircraft touched down, have not confirmed that.
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