The Flydubai co-pilot accused of attacking the captain of a Tel Aviv-bound flight earlier this week allegedly used the cockpit’s “crash axe” in the assault and has been identified as a 29-year-old Omani national. The co-pilot attempted to “take control of the aircraft”
Page A3From§Eachthe supper edition — 3 October 2026
Airline already flagged pilot as security risk; president's response: offer the passenger who stopped him a job.
As it ran on the front
Friday morning the President picked up his phone and thanked a plumber. Yaniv Hayoun, an Israeli tradesman who happened to be on FlyDubai flight 1073 to Tel Aviv, had helped subdue a co-pilot trying to crash the plane, and the President's praise could not have been cleaner: "he's my kind of guy," a job offer on the spot — "he can be my plumber." That is the whole story, and it is a good story. Stick with it.
On September 30th Prime Minister Netanyahu announced the facts as Israel had them: one pilot had stabbed the other over the approach to Tel Aviv and tried to crash the aircraft. The wounded captain, bleeding, hit the cockpit's door release before he did anything else, and passengers went through it. The pilot who survived the stabbing, Indian national Smit Machchhar, got named a hero by Wednesday afternoon. Hayoun was one of the passengers who went through that door.…
…(cont) It's the detail that turns a hijacking into the UAE attorney general's terrorist-act charge.
He's since been identified, a 29-year-old Omani national. I was ready to call this an industry problem, pilots everywhere, a vetting gap nobody could've seen coming — except ABC reported Friday that Oman Air had already suspended this specific man once, as a security risk, before he went back up. Not an industry gap. One airline's own file, overruled.
So stick with the headline: ordinary man, extraordinary day, a president who noticed. Fox News had an aviation security CEO explaining by Friday how nearly impossible the save really was, steps for the next cockpit. What nobody explained — what I nearly left out again — is who signed off on sending a flagged man back into that cockpit in the first place. The podium didn't say. The plumber got a job offer instead.
“The airline had the file on this guy and flew him anyway, and the fix we got was a job offer for the passenger who stopped him. That's the whole safety plan: hope the plumber's in seat 14C. Oman Air keeps the flight schedule; the rest of us keep crossing our fingers.”
“Look, the President did the right thing here, he praised a hero, that's leadership, that's a job offer, which is honestly better than a medal, real recognition. Did somebody ask why a flagged security risk was back in that cockpit? I mean, Oman Air handles their own personnel, that's not really — actually that's kind of the whole question, isn't it. Anyway. Great plumber.”
The receipts
Donald Trump praised Israeli plumber Yaniv Hayoun, who saved 170 lives by subduing a co-pilot trying to crash a Flydubai flight to Tel Aviv.
The co-pilot of the FlyDubai plane who allegedly attacked its captain is an Omani national who was previously suspended by Oman Air as a security risk, sources say.
Eliran Almog, a former Israeli pilot and aviation cybersecurity CEO, explains why FlyDubai flight 1073's emergency landing was nearly impossible.
President Trump on Friday morning thanked the Israeli plumber, Yaniv Hayoun, who intervened after a pilot stabbed his co-pilot and attempted to crash a Flydubai flight this week. In a video message shared on Truth Social, the president praised Hayoun, saying he “did an amazing job.” “He’s my kind of guy,”
· What to know about Flydubai cockpit clash as pilot is arrested from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· Pilot stabbed fellow pilot in apparent attempt to crash Israel-bound plane, Netanyahu says from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· ‘Hero’ pilot who helped save hijacked plane identified as Indian national Smit Machchhar from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
· Passengers stop co-pilot’s attempt to crash plane from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.