‘Whoever is hearing me, we need help’: how flight 1073 survived its 5,000-metre plunge

As flight FZ 1073 soared west over the waters of the Gulf towards Israel, its passengers may have bemoaned a 20-minute delay at takeoff.For a low-cost airline route, flydubai’s daily service to Tel Aviv is usually convenient and reliable. The nonstop flight takes about three and a half hours, and departs early enough from Dubai that it usually lands at Ben Gurion airport at about 9am local time.That was not the case for Wednesday’s catastrophic flight – the passenger jet never made it to its scheduled destination. Instead, it dropped thousands of metres out of the air in seconds before limping down to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, perhaps miraculously since photos suggested a large part of the tail of the aircraft was missing.Passengers evacuated, some covered in blood, with stories to share of a pilot-on-pilot stabbing, and footage posted online from inside the fuselage showed the aftermath of violence.In one video, two men lie on the floor with breathing masks on their faces as passengers stand over them in the cramped gangway. One wears a white shirt soaked red with blood, and the distinctive pilot stripes on his shoulders. He appears almost unresponsive. The other man blinks slowly, with blood smeared on the wall next to him. A person off camera appears to encourage the injured man to remain conscious: “No sleep,” he says.Mid-air panic as pilot attacked on Israel-bound flight - The LatestMore footage, apparently from a seat further back, shows passengers screaming and weeping in distress as the Boeing 737 MAX shakes. Israeli media reported the plane was carrying about 150 Israeli passengers.Accounts from the airline, passenger testimony, flight trackers and Israeli officials describe a series of horrific events starting about two and a half hours after takeoff.The flight tracking website Flightradar24 recorded the aircraft abruptly descending from its cruising altitude of about 10,000 meters to 5,100 meters in less than two minutes. Investigators will look at whether such a sudden and ferocious movement was the reason for damage to the aircraft’s rudder.Minutes later, the plane sent out a series of emergency transponder signals in the form of a “squawk code”. These four-digit codes are normally used by pilots to broadcast their position, but can be used in an emergency situation, even if pilots are in radio contact with air traffic control.Aircraft trackers at Flightradar24 said the flydubai plane transmitted emergency and hijack signals. The aircraft made an erratic circle close to the Jordanian border before turning around, heading south.In one video, a passenger with blood dripping from an open wound on his head pleads for assistance and says the jet is descending into Saudi Arabia. “Whoever is hearing me, we need help,” the man says in Hebrew. “We are in the Tabuk area of Saudi Arabia, which we don’t know. All the passengers are OK except for the pilot. We need help.”Passenger on the plane appeals for helpWhat was happening during these critical minutes is still being investigated, but early unconfirmed reports pointed to a cockpit fight, followed by passengers storming up the aisle, and then either one or more pilots who were travelling as passengers wresting control of the plane to avert a disaster.The Israeli newspaper Haaretz cited a passenger as saying that the plane lost control and began to “dive”.Dalia Shpigel was quoted as saying that “suddenly there were terrible screams throughout the plane” before “three to five guys burst into the cockpit” and subdued the alleged assailant and began treating an injured pilot.“We realised that the situation was stabilising and continued the flight. Gradually, information began to emerge about what had happened in the cockpit,” Shpigel told Haaretz.Chaos onboard flydubai flight to Tel Aviv after pilots altercationHer fellow passenger Miryam Shira Ohayon said the “co-pilot tried to murder the pilot and basically carry out a suicide attack on the plane”.Speaking to reporters via speakerphone held up by her mother, who was waiting at Ben Gurion airport, she said the plane “was really on the way to crashing, and it was simply the resourcefulness of many people who took control of the co-pilot and neutralised him.“There was also a doctor who gave first aid, and people who treated both of them … but the bigger fear was really a crash, which is exactly what he was trying to do.”The Emirati carrier, in a statement later on Wednesday, said the aircraft was “successfully secured by on-duty flydubai crew travelling on the flight”, who diverted and landed the aircraft safely at Tabuk airport. Airlines often move pilots around different airports as passengers, and it is possible it was these pilots who sent the emergency codes.One passenger, Almog Itali, was quoted by the BBC as saying that one of the pilots onboard who stabilised the plane was British. “There were two spare pilots who were supposed to operate the next flight,” he said. “The relief pilots are European, one of them British, who entered [the cockpit] and pulled the aircraft up, pulled the yoke, stabilised the plane and landed us in Saudi Arabia.”Mother of passenger on Israel-bound flight describes incident – videoStanislav Bukhman, head of risk at Osprey Flight Solutions, an aviation security firm based in the UK, said investigators were likely to focus on a few key areas, including how pilots were vetted, and crew screening at the departure airport.On how the flight deck might have been accessed, he said cabin crew can request entry to the cockpit using an emergency access code. “This exists for situations where the pilots are incapacitated. There is a safeguard built in, though. If the pilots are conscious and operating normally, they can deny that request and keep the door locked. This is designed to protect the flight deck in a hijacking or hostage situation,” he said.“At this stage there isn’t enough information to say how the flight deck on FZ 1073 was accessed. The door may have been opened by the captain, who reportedly resisted the co-pilot’s attempt to take control, or by cabin crew using the emergency procedure.”Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that one of the pilots had planned to crash and kill its mostly Israeli passengers, who stopped a “major disaster” with their actions.The alleged assailant was arrested after the plane landed, Netanyahu ‌said.“During the flight, as they approached the country, one of the pilots stabbed the other pilot, and apparently tried to crash the plane with everyone on board,” Netanyahu said in a video message, calling the passengers “heroes”. All the passengers were accounted for and safe.flydubai, however, said that while an “altercation” occurred in the flight deck of flight FZ 1073, it warned against drawing conclusions about the motive.“At this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation,” a flydubai spokesperson said in a statement. “We urge all parties to refrain from premature speculation while authorities gather the facts.”Agence France-Presse contributed to this report