Did Someone Order a Plate of Miracles?

What happened over the Saudi desert is one for the books.

I started my article yesterday by noting that Israelis are happy people. I did not know that within the space of a few hours, Israelis would be singing songs of faith inside a damaged 737 jet. As with many stories, original reports on Wednesday regarding flight FZ1073 were often sketchy and wrong. One of my boys said that a FlyDubai plane had squawked 7500, which is the warning sign for a hijacking or other illegal activity on a flight. Then the signal vanished. Then we were told that it was a Russian and a Ukrainian in the cockpit, one stabbing the other. It was only a pilot altercation. It was nothing serious. Until it was something big and almost catastrophic.

The last time I was on a plane, almost a year ago, it was FlyDubai. The staff was professional and courteous. They run 10 daily flights out of Ben Gurion Airport (which the BBC called Ben Gvir Airport, since they cannot stop thinking about Israel’s tough-guy internal security minister). Years before, Turkey served as the conduit for Israelis wanting to travel — and Israelis love to travel. Direct flights often did not exist or were very expensive. Turkish Air, Pegasus and others funneled Israelis to Istanbul and Ankara, where they caught connections to points throughout the globe. Turkey dropped out after October 7, and Emirates (of which FlyDubai is a part) and Etihad jumped right in. On our flight out of Tel Aviv, we had people going to Thailand, Australia, Europe and South Africa. Emirates has — by far — the largest fleet of Airbus A380 superjumbos, so the FlyDubai 737s bring Israelis to Dubai where they fan out to their connecting flights. The more than 160 Israelis on the hijacked jet were no doubt coming home from vacations, some made in Dubai. All FlyDubai flights are canceled at this time, and for quite some time Israeli carriers have been forbidden to work out of UAE airports due to issues regarding security standards.

Someone once said a long time ago that a person has to be a big believer in order to be an atheist. One of the beautiful aspects of God’s creation is that there is always room to hang events on nature, luck, materials and the like. While the events are still relatively fresh and not all details are known, the following seems to be correct:

• In contravention of understandings between Israel and the UAE, the Muslim Omani co-pilot was present in the cockpit.
• The pilot, an Indian, was heroic in fighting off his attacker and critically opening the cockpit door to allow in the crew and passengers.
• An Israeli dentist worked with others to stabilize the bleeding captain and save his life.
• The three guys who rushed the cockpit just happened to be sitting at the front of the plane.
• The guy who met Bibi Netanyahu while still wearing his blood-soaked shirt said that he was a fan of the "Mayday" series and used his rudimentary knowledge to pull back on the stick and stop the insane loss of altitude. He apologized for appearing so filthy while meeting the prime minister.
• While feet and seconds vary, it would appear that the FlyDubai jet dropped around 15,000 feet in less than a minute. In such a dramatic fall, a person would be eye-to-eye with his overhead luggage.
• The 737, in its fall, went 100 knots over its maximum speed. It lost part of its rudder. Some have noted that it was an additional miracle that the entire tail of the plane did not disconnect due to massive forces on the airframe.
• There just happened to be a spare crew in the back. People have noted that in the absence of trained pilots, landing a damaged 737 by a beginner might not be so simple, however good the autopilot features on the plane are.
• The Saudis took great care of the Israelis. They refused an Israeli rescue flight, while some passengers refused to get on another FlyDubai plane. The Mossad and Shin Bet (internal security) vetted the pilots for the replacement Dubai flight, and the Israelis were escorted by a pair of F-15s on their arrival home.

People are writing all over how this is totally Israeli. And while I agree that those who acted — from taking down the copilot to saving the badly wounded captain — acted as one might expect from Israelis, I believe that others would have behaved similarly under such chaotic pressure. Patriotic Americans would have done no less in taking out the terrorist and stabilizing the plane, while I would not put any money on today’s liberals or Europeans. They might have asked if the plane could dive faster.

When an Egyptian pilot apparently committed suicide by crashing his plane (I learned the details from the relevant "Mayday" episode — I used to watch them all while working out), he pushed the nose down and reduced engine power. Thank God, the Omani Muslim terrorist either did not think of it or did not have time before being subdued. He is alive and in the hands of the Saudis. It will be interesting to know if they will get anything out of him and if we’ll get anything out of them. If it turns out that Iran paid the guy’s family, will Israel bomb the final daylights out of the mullahs and IRGC? People said of the bloodied passenger when he met the Israeli prime minister that he just got the latter reelected. That may be a bit of a stretch, but I had a feeling that when Donald Trump got up on his feet and yelled, “Fight, Fight, Fight!” that he had just sealed his reelection.

The media, of course, could not stand a positive and happy-ending Israel story. “Altercation in cockpit” and the like were the titles when it was already known that the event was a full-blown 9/11-style terrorist hijacking. As the media have decided that Israel is evil and that its citizens and soldiers are guilty of genocide, etc., they could not write an article where A) Israelis were targeted for violent murder and B) the Israelis behaved heroically and won. It’s like hating the Yankees with all one’s being and not being able to admit that the ump cheated them and they still pulled out a gutsy victory. If one knew nothing, he would think that two pilots had a fight, got a little bloody, and then the whole thing ended with an unplanned landing. That passengers rushed the cockpit, stabilized the damaged plane and that replacement pilots were on hand to land in a country that still does not recognize Israel would not be clear from early mainstream reporting. Imagine if this drama had occurred near Iran and the Israeli passengers found themselves there instead of in Saudi Arabia?

There is an expression in the Talmud that one should not rely on miracles, the concept being that one should not plan his activities with the express reliance on some miracle occurring during the process. A rabbi noted that when one has no choice but to rely on a miracle, then he better do so. I have no doubt that those who acted didn’t have a clue when they woke up and went to Dubai International Airport what was in store for them during a “routine” five-hour flight back to Israel. Those who acted showed incredible calm under pressure and heroic action when and where it was needed. The captain should have a full recovery and his bravery in fighting off the terrorist and letting in the rescuers was amazing. A major disaster was averted, and even more so than yesterday, Israelis are a happy people. Thank God.

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