A Miracle in Plane Flight
This is an account of the nightmare that occurred at 34,000 feet, and the miracle that transpired at 17,000, aboard Flydubai airline’s flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
The flight, carrying 174 people, was making its way toward Israel when, thousands of feet above the ground, something went terribly wrong in the cockpit.
According to CNN’s reporting, there was “an altercation in the cockpit between two pilots.”
An altercation?
That is a classic example of a lie of omission—hiding behind a technically accurate but profoundly incomplete description. There is a vast difference between saying two pilots had an “altercation” and reporting that one pilot stabbed the other and attempted to take control of the aircraft.
According to passenger accounts, the Omani co-pilot suddenly attacked the Indian captain with a knife and tried to take control of the aircraft. At the same time, the airplane plunged approximately 17,000 feet in a minute, producing the terrifying realization among passengers that their lives were being measured in seconds.
Then, to quote a classic deflection from truth, “Some people did something.”
During this dire occasion, those “some people,” who “did something,” were courageous Israeli passengers, including former Israeli Air Force pilots who happened to be aboard, and forced their way into the cockpit and helped subdue the attacker and regained control of the plane, which made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
What could have become another aviation catastrophe, reminiscent of 9/11, instead, became a story of extraordinary courage and survival.
And yet, as the story unfolded, the way portions of the media described the incident became as remarkable as the incident itself.
The Indian captain who was attacked was identified as Capt. Smit Machchhar of Mumbai, India. His nationality and professional background were readily reported.
The terrorist was less clearly identified. He was an Omani national, but his name and motive were not immediately released.
A stabbing in the cockpit followed by a precipitous descent of thousands of feet is not merely an “altercation.”
The story also became fertile ground for dark humor on social media, with spoof headlines imagining how the incident might have been reported if the roles and identities were reversed. The humor was based on a serious point: the media has a recurring tendency to scrutinize Israel intensely while describing violence committed by its enemies in comparatively antiseptic language.
Two widely circulated spoofs captured that sentiment:
New York Times: “Israeli Passengers Violently Subdue Airline Crew Member Minding His Own Business.”
And a spoof of a Guardian front-page banner:
“Arab Pilot Brutally Attacked by Zionist Mob, Says the BBC.”
Neither headline is genuine journalism, of course. That is precisely the point of the satire. The exaggeration exposes what its creators perceive as a double standard in the language used to describe Israel and its enemies.
But whatever investigators ultimately determine, one fact is already extraordinary: 174 people were aboard an airplane that suddenly plunged thousands of feet after a violent cockpit attack, and they survived because passengers acted and the brave Indian pilot unlatched the cockpit door allowing the Israelis to disarm the terrorist and take control of the plane.
A close Israeli friend once told me, “I don’t believe in God, but I do believe in miracles.”
Sometimes a miracle is simply what we call an impossible outcome, made possible by courageous human beings, inspired by their faith in their God-given ability to overcome evil with goodness.
