FlyDubai Passenger Says Air Crash Investigation Helped Him Stop Jet's Dive
Yaniv Hayoun says hours watching plane-crash television helped him save a passenger jet.
Hayoun has been identified as the passenger who intervened aboard FlyDubai flight FZ 1073, operating from Dubai International to Ben Gurion International Airport. He credited the docuseries Air Crash Investigation, a documentary series that reconstructs real aviation emergencies, with showing him what to do when the aircraft reportedly dropped 17,400 feet in under two minutes before stabilising, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Flydubai said in an official updates page published on 30 September 2026 that an altercation occurred in the flight deck of FZ 1073, which it lists as DXB to TLV, according to Flydubai. The flight deck is the secured cockpit area where the pilots work. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed a pilot was arrested for allegedly stabbing his co-pilot and attempting to crash the aircraft. That remains an allegation as reported, not a confirmed finding.
Hayoun told Netanyahu that after helping subdue the alleged attacker, he returned to the cockpit to grab the controls. N12 News chief political analyst Amit Segal wrote on X that Hayoun said: "I pulled back on the controls and stopped the plane's dive. Good thing I watched 'Air Crash Investigation.'" He pulled back. The dive stopped.
The series he named is Mayday, widely shown as Air Crash Investigation. It is produced by Cineflix Productions and has run for 26 seasons dramatising real-life crashes, near-crashes, hijackings and bombings. It was made for Discovery Canada, National Geographic Channels and Canal D and is distributed internationally by Cineflix Rights, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The episodes dramatise real events rather than fictional stories.
Cineflix describes Mayday: Air Disaster as revealing that aviation safety improves one crash at a time, according to Cineflix. The company has previously called Mayday Discovery's long-running original Canadian series and primetime mainstay. In a 2017 announcement, it said Season 17 premiered on 8 September at 10 p.m. ET on Discovery.
What makes this stand out is the reversal. Mayday is built to piece together what went wrong after an accident. Here a regular viewer said he used that playbook while the emergency was still in the air. For viewers who know the title from the listings, the credit links a familiar show to a live rescue.
