A Thai passenger aboard the Flydubai flight targeted by its co-pilot has described the terrifying moments when the aircraft plunged twice, passengers screamed and people without seatbelts were lifted out of their seats.

Wirawat Rogphan, a Thai national who works in Israel, said the images remain seared into his memory after the Omani co-pilot attacked the Indian captain and attempted to crash the aircraft during its flight from the United Arab Emirates to Israel.

“Everything was normal, and within less than three minutes, the plane suddenly plunged,” Rogphan recalled.

He estimated that the first dive felt as though it lasted five or six seconds.

“It was like being on a roller coaster when we were at a great height and suddenly dropped downward,” he said.

According to Rogphan, some passengers had finished eating and were no longer wearing their seatbelts, causing their bodies to rise into the air as the aircraft descended.

“Children and women—everyone was screaming, and some were crying,” he said. “There were two consecutive dives, and I cried three times.”

After the plunges, Rogphan described a severe feeling of suffocation and difficulty communicating clearly amid the chaos.

Passengers who rushed to assist the captain began asking whether anyone aboard was a police officer, soldier or doctor who could help subdue the attacker and stop the captain’s bleeding.

“Everything happened within about 10 minutes until they managed to bring the situation under control,” Rogphan said, adding that the attacking co-pilot lost consciousness and was restrained.

Even after the immediate danger was brought under control, the passengers faced an agonizing wait as the aircraft sought somewhere to make an emergency landing.

“What took a long time was the period when the plane was looking for a place to land,” he recalled.

Throughout the ordeal, Rogphan said, Israeli passengers repeatedly checked on him and tried to reassure him after noticing that he was traveling alone.

“The Israeli passengers tried to ask us whether we were okay,” he said. “Their approach and their treatment of us were amazing. I consider them very good people, and they looked after us the whole time.”

He said their concern continued after the situation had calmed, with passengers approaching him again and again to check on his wellbeing.

Although the flight ended without the catastrophe passengers feared, Rogphan said he continues to struggle with the psychological effects. On his lawyer’s advice, he is considering seeking a medical or psychiatric evaluation to document the trauma for a compensation claim against the airline.

Rogphan also rejected claims circulating in Thailand that Jews had staged the attack, saying the accusations were deeply hurtful to those who had lived through it.

“When we heard and read that, we felt sadness and disappointment, because we were there on the plane, in the middle of the incident,” he said. “People speak like this without knowing what happened, and it hurts.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)