Who are the mystery pilots who stepped in to stabilise the Flydubai flight 1073 as it hurtled toward disaster? As of Saturday, three days after the uniformed crew members rushed to the cockpit to steady the Israel-bound plane carrying 182 people after a sickening plummet, they still haven't been publicly identified. Flydubai has called them only on-duty crew members traveling on the plane.
It’s not clear why the airline hasn't said more. One passenger at the front of the plane, though, described the men’s actions in an interview with The , giving one of the most detailed accounts of the yet-unsung heroes. Read moreFlydubai hero pilot tells Modi 'I could not let all those people die' “This is one of the miracles,” said Daniel Schlichter, who was seated in the second row.
In this case, they brought them because they should have brought the plane back from Tel Aviv to Dubai, and this is the only reason they were there.” The practice is called deadheading. The two men responded after screaming passengers discovered what was unfolding in the cockpit. They said the co-pilot was attacking the captain over and over, and blood was everywhere.
The captain, while badly wounded, managed to unlock the cockpit door. After a passenger grabbed the co-pilot and pulled him out, and others grappled with the man to subdue him, Schlichter said that one of the traveling pilots practically hurdled the scrum to enter the cockpit and seize the controls. Read moreUAE investigators say Omani Flydubai co-pilot was planning 'terrorist' attack “He was actually kind of jumping above the guys that were handling the terrorist, and he reached out to the pilot area and started to take over,” Schlichter said.
But whoever the first one was, he moved very quickly. Once the two entered the cockpit and closed the door, Schlichter wasn’t sure who did what inside. It took “quite a lot of minutes”, maybe 10 or more, to stabilise the plane after a descent so extreme that part of its rudder was torn away.
A mayday call was made as the men frantically sought a place to land. AI deepfake of BBC report falsely links Indians to FlyDubai hijacking attempt To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading.
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