When it came to the September 30 attempted hijacking of Flydubai flight FZ1073, NBC’s Oct. 3 coverage leaves out a crucial part of the story. The article, titled “Flydubai pilot attacked captain with cockpit’s crash ax in attempted terrorist attack, UAE official says,” includes plenty drama, heroism, risk, terror, and a careful examination of the incident. But such an in-depth documentation of the attack, a collaborative effort between no less than five journalists, including Raf Sanchez, Shira Pinson, Freddie Clayton, Tom Winter, and Jonathan Dienst, needed to tell the whole story. And it simply didn’t, omitting the heroism of the Israeli passengers who pulled the stricken aircraft out of its death spiral.
Let’s set the record straight first. Flydubai Captain Smit Machchhar is an undisputed hero. His actions, staving off a terrorist co-pilot who had begun to viciously attack the Indian national, while managing to unlock his cockpit door to allow passengers to overpower the attacker, deserve nothing but admiration and respect. His initial instincts saved the lives of over 170 mostly Israeli passengers. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Machchhar on Oct. 3, calling him a “true hero of the brave peoples of India and Israel, and … a hero of the entire world.”
Flydubai aircraft, retrieved Oct. 7, 2026 via Wikimedia Commons
But NBC’s narrative of the near disaster ends with his actions.
NBC describes the events as follows:
A crash was averted, according to eyewitnesses and Israeli officials, when crew and passengers were able to enter the cabin and subdue the attacker.
NBC detailed Machchhar’s actions in another area of the article.
Machchhar was widely praised for his efforts to prevent the plane from crashing by opening the cockpit door and allowing passengers and crew members to rush in.
As well he should be. But there was still danger when Israeli passengers neutralized and restrained the hijacker, Omani citizen Hamam al-Hammami, and wrestled the control yoke back, pulling the aircraft out of its dive toward the earth. According to a New York Times analysis of the attack, “four Israeli passengers … are being hailed for racing unarmed into harm’s way, overpowering the first officer, giving the captain first aid, and making it possible for a second backup pilot to take over and land the plane safely in Saudi Arabia.”
Those Israelis included Yaniv Hayoun, a plumber who met with Netanyahu shortly after the attack and who U.S. President Donald Trump said “did an amazing job. He can be my plumber … what a job he did. He’s a hero.” Hayoun, a fan of the television program about air disasters, ‘Mayday’, grabbed the flight controls and leveled the plane before the spare flight crew could take over.
Then there were Asaf Rajuan, a financial planner, Tzvika Manes, a banking executive, and Shota Musaev, a dentist credited with providing medical aid to Machchhar. The four Israelis took advantage of Capt. Machchhar’s quick thinking and overpowered Al-Hammami, physically saving the doomed flight. There was also Tali Manes, Tzvika’s wife, who was reportedly the first to raise the alarm about the cockpit attack. It was a team effort that wasn’t detailed as such in NBC’s article.
Then there’s the question of motive. In NBC’s coverage, the fact that the plane contained more than 150 Israelis seemed more incidental than part of the core of the attack itself. There’s a major difference between the framing of, “An Omani copilot attacks his fellow pilot on a flight bound for Israel,” and, “An Omani copilot for one of the only airlines that has continuously flown routes to Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, assaults the captain, and attempts to take control of and crash the aircraft full of Israelis.”
By downplaying the role Israelis played in regaining control of the aircraft, we are once again seeing an example of the media refusing to report on the individual humanity of Israelis. Just weeks ago, the New York Times deleted a line from an article that had previously claimed that Israelis “view themselves as the victims of October 7.” CAMERA at the time noted the grossly insensitive “narrative spin,” stating that “Implying Israelis falsely view themselves as victims while downplaying October 7 ignores basic reality.” NBC, in underreporting the role of Israelis in the Flydubai incident, have committed a similar error, refusing to allow Israelis to be seen as heroes and victims.
Now, Israel is confirmed to have indeed been the target. NPR reported on Oct. 5 that Al-Hammami had intended to crash the Flydubai aircraft into Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, an attack that conjures images of the Sept. 11, 2001, Al Qaeda terrorist attacks.
Though those details were not disclosed at the time, NBC still underplayed just how significant the details of the flight’s manifest and destination were to potential motives. Reuters reported on Oct. 5 that investigators believe Al-Hammami had planned the attack before joining Flydubai. Additionally, Emirati officials, as noted by NBC, confirmed even at the time of writing that Al-Hammami had intended to carry out “a terrorist act,” and that he had “previously been banned from flying by Oman over concerns he had adopted radical ideological views.” So, the fact that the would-be terrorist was trying to hijack a plane en-route to Israel and carrying nearly 200 predominantly Israeli citizens suggests that the target was indeed Israel. The mere suggestion that Al-Hammami could have been explicitly targeting Israel is not included in NBC’s coverage.
NBC’s readers need the whole story. Israeli civilians played a key role in halting a terrorist attack and preventing a major disaster. They were not just caught in the middle of the incident. By failing to tell their story and initially treating the flight’s destination and manifest as background, NBC left its readers with an incomplete account of the attempted hijacking.