A medical student aboard the Israel-bound Flydubai flight has described how he helped restrain the Omani terrorist co-pilot who attempted to crash the aircraft, while also treating the seriously wounded captain.

Adar Hayot said he is still struggling to comprehend how narrowly he escaped death.

“It is very difficult to process, as a passenger who was on the plane, that in the scenario where there was luck, I am alive—and in any other scenario, I am dead,” he said.

Hayot said he treated Captain Sumit Machhar, who suffered serious stab wounds inflicted by terrorist Hamam Al Hammami.

When passengers needed to move the attacker, who was still standing, Hayot obtained cable ties from another passenger and secured them around him to prevent him from resisting or breaking free.

Hayot said passengers also discussed whether they needed to kill the terrorist because they feared he still had a knife.

“We were afraid he had a knife. We debated whether we needed to kill him—but we didn’t really have a way to do that,” he said.

The investigation in the United Arab Emirates reportedly established that the other foreign pilots did not cooperate with the terrorist at any stage.

Separately, official figures show that dozens of Omani citizens entered Israel on tourist visas in recent years: 10 in 2022, 29 in 2023, nine in 2024 and 11 in 2025. Additional Omani citizens have entered during 2026.

The figures have raised questions about compliance with aviation agreement requirements, since some of those visitors may have been aircrew.

Under the requirements described, Omani aircrew must hold a diplomatic passport from a country that maintains relations with Israel.

Asked about possible violations, the Transportation Ministry said its working assumption was that they had not occurred, but acknowledged that it could not say so with certainty.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)