The Miracle of Air Dubai 1073  

Israel was lucky this morning when a crazed copilot on that AirDubai 737 flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv decided to stab the pilot and take over the aircraft.

There is no way to know at this point in time what his motive was.  It turns out he h ad Omani citizenship which may or may not have been a factor.  It is simply too early to tell.  It is also too early to tell whether his intent was to crash the plane in the Saudi desert and kill all 179 passengers aboard, or fly the aircraft to Tel Aviv and crash it there or to take it to another country, land it and hold the passenger’s hostage for whatever motivated him in the first place. Time will tell and eventually we will know.

However, what we do know is that we, as a people, have been conditioned by history to know what to do in these situations and capitalize on the circumstances we are faced with in order to have these potential catastrophes end well.

We were lucky that Air Dubai planes are not outfitted with impenetrable doors that are mandatory on commercial planes that fly in the US.  That allowed the brave Israelis on the flight to storm the cockpit and restrain the attacker.

We have learned, if those two plain clothes pilots located at the back of the plane were Israelis (we still do not know, they could have also been Emirati pilots dead-heading to Tel Aviv to take one of their other Air Dubai planes back to the UAE) who knew how to insure that “never again” means “never again.”  Perhaps we always have an extra set of pilots on these flights “just in case.”  Or perhaps Air Dubai does so “just in case.”

We were lucky that on that plane were probably dozens of battle-hardened Israelis who know how to take control of a situation and leverage what they have experienced and use it to their advantage.  Bless them all for that.

No doubt, there were also people among the passengers who had battlefield first aid experience and knew what to do to keep the seriously injured pilot alive for an hour until the plane could land safely, rather than let him bleed out.

We were also lucky that the aircraft was operated by Air Dubai and not ELAL, which also flies the route.  It is not clear at all that the Saudis would have permitted an ELAL aircraft to land there, as we do not have diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia.

It was also important that people on the flight knew how important it was to document the assistance to the injured pilot provided by the Israeli passengers so that the world will see, once again, that when it comes to saving lives, we do everything we can so that regardless of who it is that needs assistance, they get it.

Those of us who are people of faith will also give thanks to the One above for being on our side this morning and ensuring that when the aircraft dropped 17,000 feet in two minutes, very few people were injured, that the reserve pilots were qualified to fly that type of aircraft and that in spite of significant damage to the rudder as a result of the drop, the aircraft was still airworthy and able to be flown and landed.

We were lucky this morning.  The combination of Jewish guts and knowledge, along with a whole series of other things that also had to fall into place along with the emotional assistance of a generous God let us pull it out.  All 179 people will be able to join their families here on Shabbat which is also the observance of Sh’mini Atzeret, the 8^th Day of Solemn Assembly as it is often translated to English.  Because it is a separate holiday from Sukkot which concludes Friday afternoon the special blessing of “Shechechyanu” will be recited when Shabbat candles are lit and when the Kiddush over the wine is recited as well.

Blessed are You, Lord our G‑d, King of the Universe, who has granted us life, sustained us and enabled us to reach this occasion.

Every one of the 179 passengers on that plane will recite that blessing with special fervor as will the rest of us who were privileged to see this end well. We were lucky this morning for sure.