Thai Passenger Recounts Heroic Israeli Response Aboard Attacked Flight

A dramatic testimony from a Thai passenger aboard a flydubai flight from the United Arab Emirates to Israel has detailed the terrifying moments at high altitude, when an Omani co-pilot attacked the Indian captain, Sumit Machhar, in an apparent attempt to crash the aircraft. Wirawat Rugphan, a Thai national working in Israel, shared footage from the incident on social media and recounted the hours of fear alongside the bravery of Israeli passengers who subdued the situation.

The Sudden Plunge and Panic in the Cabin

"When we arrived, of course we were scared, and the images are still stuck in front of my eyes," Rugphan told Thai media outlet ThaiRath. "Everything was normal, and in less than three minutes the plane suddenly dived. The first dive lasted about five to six seconds in my feeling, and it was like being on a roller coaster when we are at a high altitude and suddenly plunge down. Since some people who had finished eating were not buckled up, their bodies simply floated in the air, both children and women. Everyone screamed and some cried. There were two consecutive dives, and I cried three times."

According to Rugphan, the drama inside the passenger cabin escalated rapidly. "After the dive there was a severe feeling of suffocation, and we could not communicate clearly with anyone," he described. "What surprised me in the first place about this airline was that on this flight there were only male flight attendants, not a single female flight attendant."

Israeli Passengers Jump into Action

Salvation came from the Israeli passengers who sprang into action and prevented a severe disaster:

• Passengers rushed to assist the captain and called out to ask if anyone was a police officer, soldier, or doctor to help stop the pilot's bleeding.

• The situation was brought under control within approximately 10 minutes, and the co-pilot who carried out the attack lost consciousness and was tied up.

• The aircraft spent a significant amount of time searching for an emergency landing location.

"The Israeli passengers tried to ask us if we were okay. Their attitude and treatment were amazing. I consider them a very good people, and they took care of us all the time because they saw that I was a foreigner and the only Thai and foreigner on the plane."

Mental Toll and Conspiracy Theories

Despite the positive outcome, psychological scars and online reactions continue to cause pain. "I will probably go get checked at a hospital, with a psychiatrist or a doctor to get a medical certificate to file a lawsuit against the airline for compensation, as the lawyer recommended," Rugphan shared. He also expressed pain over conspiracy theories in his homeland: "Regarding what people in Thailand are saying, that the Jews staged this and so on, when we heard and read that we felt sadness and disappointment, because we were there on the plane inside the event, and without someone knowing what happened they talk like that, and it hurts."

According to reports and details revealed in Israel, the co-pilot who carried out the extreme attack was previously fired from an Omani airline due to radical behavior, and had even planned the attack for an earlier date around July—a plan abandoned at the last moment only because he discovered his friend was flying with him. The magnitude of the averted disaster has now become clear: his primary goal was to neutralize the captain, take exclusive control of the plane, and crash it directly into a passenger terminal at Ben Gurion Airport.