An Israeli mother and her four daughters were on flydubai flight FZ1073. When the co-pilot tried to hijack the plane, she gave them one command: “Pray.”
Lital Hirschl-Shahar, 39, was on her way home from a holiday in Singapore and Thailand with her daughters, ages 14, 11, 7 and 5. She said she knew something was wrong when she heard someone near the front of the plane yelling that the pilot was under attack.
“We heard a woman yelling in business class. She sounded scared and I will never forget it,” Hehir-Shahar told the New York Post. “It all happened so fast, and the plane started to fall. It was so scary, so crazy… We all thought we were going to die.”
“I kept talking to God and believed that prayer was the only thing that could save us. I told my daughters to pray too,” she continued. “We need a miracle, and I can’t help but think, ‘Is this how you died? Is this how your daughters died?'”
Despite his injuries, Indian pilot Smit Macchhar managed to open the cockpit door – and as soon as he did, several Israeli passengers sprang into action. Plumber Yaniv Hayoun later told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he had learned what to do while watching “Air Crash Investigation,” pulling the co-pilot from the cockpit when he tried to disable the plane’s instruments.
As others subdued the resisting terrorists, Hayoun rushed back to the cockpit and pulled the plane out of its downward trajectory. Another man entered the cockpit, identified himself as the pilot, and told Hayoun that he would take over.
Hayon said he stayed to observe the replacement pilot because no one could determine at the time whether anyone else was involved in the co-pilot’s alleged plan to crash the plane in a 9/11-style attack. He said he was relieved to hear the pilot speak to ground control, relay information about the injured pilot and seek medical help upon landing.
The plane initially landed in Saudi Arabia before another plane took the passengers on to their original destination of Tel Aviv.
“This is truly a miracle of miracles,” Hehir-Shahar said after they returned home safely.