Three Israeli passengers to be awarded for heroism after preventing apparent attempt to crash plane

London: Three Israeli airline passengers will be given presidential awards for civilian heroism after they stormed the cockpit of a Dubai to Tel Aviv flight and prevented an apparent attempt by one of the pilots to crash the plane.

The three men and a fellow passenger – a dentist who treated the wounded captain of the flight – are being hailed as heroes after Wednesday’s midair emergency that Israel’s defence minister has called a “jihadist terrorism attack” by the co-pilot.

Australian couple Steven and Carol Moss were among the 174 passengers – 166 of them Israelis – on the Boeing 737 MAX flight when it fell more than 4000 metres in less than 30 seconds as the captain and co-pilot fought over the controls.

Contacted for comment, Steven Moss said he was struggling after the ordeal and did not wish to speak to the media. He is the son of a Holocaust survivor who founded the Katies retail chain.

The co-pilot, who has not been named, is under arrest after witnesses said he stabbed the captain, Indian national Smit Machchhar, and tried to smash the controls, sending the aircraft spiralling to the ground.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog praised the “swift action” of the passengers and crew to avert a major disaster, naming Yaniv Hayoun, Tzvika Manes and Asaf Rajuan, who subdued the co-pilot, and Dr Shota Musayev, who treated the wounded captain. They will be given the Presidential Award for Civilian Heroism.

Attention is turning to the actions of the co-pilot, reported to be an Omani national, given multiple witness accounts that indicate he attempted the mass murder of Jewish and other passengers on their way to Israel.

“This horrific incident, reminiscent of Palestinian hijackings in the 1970s and of 9/11, reminds us that we have to maintain vigilance and readiness in the fight against terror,” Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said.

The crisis began when flydubai flight FZ1073 suddenly lost altitude and issued an emergency alert more than two hours into its journey, leading the Israeli government to scramble fighter jets in response.

After passengers subdued the co-pilot, two off-duty pilots on board were able to take control of the aircraft and divert to Saudi Arabia, making an emergency landing in Tabuk. All on board survived the ordeal and the passengers were later flown to Tel Aviv on a second flydubai flight.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met passengers when they landed and saluted the heroes on board.

He spoke to a passenger and officials who told him one of the pilots stabbed the other and apparently tried to crash the aircraft.

“They saved many lives and averted a terrible disaster. The pilot who committed the stabbing has been arrested and is currently being interrogated by Saudi authorities,” he said.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the evidence showed the pilot wanted to crash the plane.

“The grave incident on the flydubai plane was a jihadist terrorist attack attempt, which was thwarted only thanks to the bravery of several Israeli passengers who broke into the cockpit, overpowered the terrorist and, with their own hands, restored control of the plane to another flight crew who was present there,” he said in a statement.

The actions of the co-pilot remain the subject of investigation, however, and no formal finding has been made about whether he was a terrorist acting with others. Some Israeli media outlets cited unnamed officials who described the co-pilot as a “lone wolf” attacker.

Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister’s office, said the wounded captain had drawn on “the last moments of his energy” as he lay bloodied on the floor to click open the release on the cockpit door.

“At that moment, some of the passengers that realised something was happening raced forward [and] entered the pilot’s cabin. They saw the injured pilot on the ground, and the other … the attacking pilot was standing over the control panel, bashing the control panel,” he said.

Netanyahu said on X that, “despite being stabbed and seriously injured, [Machchhar] fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker – preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster … He saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals.”

One passenger, in a text message to Israeli media network Channel 12 that was reported by The Times of Israel and other outlets, said: “We heard screams on the plane.”

“Then they opened the cockpit and we saw blood, and someone had stabbed the pilot with a pocketknife.”

In a video shared by one person on the flight, the captain is covered in blood as some passengers support him and praise him for saving the aircraft from disaster. A second member of the crew, possibly the other pilot, is seen tied up nearby and apparently unconscious.

The aircraft departed Dubai at 7.05am local time on Wednesday (1.05pm AEST) and initially flew over the southern part of the Persian Gulf before crossing over Saudi Arabia and heading towards Israel.

Fluctuations in its altitude began about two hours into the trip, according to Flightradar24. The plane then dropped 14,000 feet (4300 metres) in less than 30 seconds.

Authorities first became aware of the unfolding crisis when the aircraft issued a 7700 “squawk” code to signal an international emergency about 2½ hours into the flight, before changing this to a 7500 code to signal a hijacking or unlawful interference.

Netanyahu called urgent meetings to monitor the emergency, which lasted for the next 90 minutes before the plane turned out of Jordanian airspace and landed safely.

The replacement plane that took the passengers on to Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel was greeted with cheers and a crowd waving Israeli flags.

Israeli journalist Amichai Stein reported an account of the emergency from those on board and posted images of one passenger with a blood-stained shirt.

“We heard screams and saw blood,” one passenger said, according to Stein. “The pilot was stabbed. There were moments when we thought we weren’t going to make it out alive.”

One of the hero passengers, Yaniv Hayoun, told Netanhayu how he had forced his way into the cockpit to stop the attack.

In a discussion posted on social media, Hayoun described how he had “pulled the yoke up” on the aircraft’s controls to bring the plane out of its steep dive.

A passenger called Daniel told Israeli media outlet Channel 12, in remarks reported by The Times of Israel, that he had seen a struggle in the cockpit and an attempt to push someone out.

“Then three Israelis who were sitting behind me came to see what was happening, and the plane suddenly went into a very steep dive, nose down, with a very intense spin,” he said.

“The spinning stopped. It took some – I don’t know, it felt like an eternity, but I think it was two minutes, at least two or three minutes, during which the plane was simply diving and spinning like crazy.

“It felt like, that’s it. It’s over. September 11 is happening again.”

Israeli airspace was briefly closed during the emergency.

After the passengers made it to Tel Aviv on the second aircraft, Israeli authorities said one 51-year-old male passenger with a mild upper body wound was transported to a hospital.

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