Six-year-old airline passenger Nina Manes needed to pee as the Flydubai airplane she was on approached Jordanian airspace on its way from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
asserted
she → need → Aviv
Asking her mother to take her to the toilet was a great stroke of fortune — they stumbled upon an unfolding midair drama and sounded an alarm that helped save them all from plunging to their deaths.
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that → ask → deaths
Nina was guided by her mother, Tali, to the front of the plane, Wednesday, just as one pilot lunged to attack the other in an apparent attempt to bring down the plane.
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pilot → guide → plane
Attracted by shouting, she looked inside the cockpit.
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she → attract → cockpit
“There was blood all over the cockpit and very, very sharp fighting moves,” Tali told Israeli media.
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Tali → be → media
“I screamed, ‘He’s stabbing the pilot, he’s stabbing the pilot, come help!’
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he → scream → pilot
People looked at me and didn’t understand.”
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People → look → me
Her shouts of alarm triggered an incredible effort by passengers and crew to save the plane and themselves, according to witness accounts.
uncertain
shouts → trigger → accounts
Here is what witnesses say happened.
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witnesses → say → ?
Flydubai Flight FZ1073 was carrying 174 passengers and eight crew members from Dubai, a city in the United Arab Emirates on the Persian Gulf, to Tel Aviv, a city on Israel’s Mediterranean coast.
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FZ1073 → carry → coast
The daily flight is supposed to be a non-stop trip of 2,130 kilometres, taking about three and a half hours.
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flight → suppose → hours
With an hour left before landing, the trip turned terrifying.
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trip → leave → landing
What the mother and daughter saw in the cockpit, officials say, was a co-pilot attacking his fellow pilot, stabbing him in an apparent fight for control of the plane.
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pilot → see → plane
Their screams brought passengers running,
The injured captain, Smit Machchhar, an Indian man now hailed as a hero, described on Friday his desperate fight inside the cockpit.
“I was fighting for my life,” he said in Gujarati.
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he → bring → Gujarati
“I had suffered so many injuries that I had collapsed.
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I → suffer → injuries
At that time, I could feel that the aircraft was going down.
uncertain
aircraft → feel → time
I knew this was the last push, that the door was right there,” he said.
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he → know → ?
I was being hit even then, but I just opened the door and everyone came in.”
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everyone → hit → door
Once Machchhar unlocked the cockpit door passengers waiting outside swarmed in.
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passengers → unlock → door
“Someone shouted ‘stabbing’ and my husband immediately understood what was happening and rushed to the front of the plane, and along with other Israelis they neutralized the terrorist,” another passenger told Channel 12.
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passenger → shout → terrorist
One was down on the floor and one on the instruments,” Hayun said afterwards in Hebrew.
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Hayun → say → Hebrew
“I caught the attacker.
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I → catch → attacker
I put him in a chokehold and pulled him out first.
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I → put → him
I jumped back into the cockpit and pulled the yokes back.”
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I → jump → yokes
A video from inside the cockpit shows two injured and bloodied men in uniform on the floor being treated beside a blood-smeared wall.
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men → show → wall
Others onboard, including an off-duty pilot, worked to stabilize the plane that was nosediving toward the desert sand.
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that → include → sand
Passenger Almog Italie said it felt like “we were having very big turbulence” before he heard the fighting at the front of the plane.
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he → say → plane
“And the crew member, along with the passengers gained control, took over.”
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member → gain → control
Flightradar24, a flight tracking website, showed the Boeing 737 Max plummeted from an altitude of about 34,000 feet to 17,000 feet in less than two minutes.
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Max → track → minutes
Videos from inside the plane show the plane shaking as it plunged, with some passengers screaming and crying, some shielding children, others crouching in the aisle.
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others → show → aisle
The plane was “pretty much out of control,” said passenger Miryam Shira Ohayon.
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Ohayon → say → control
“It was really on the way to crashing, and it was simply the resourcefulness of many people who took control of the co-pilot and neutralized him.
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who → crash → him
After about 10 minutes of erratic flying, the plane was brought under control and its dangerous flight stabilized.
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flight → bring → control
From within the cockpit, the 7700 and 7500 emergency distress codes were activated, suggesting an attempted hijacking as opposed to a mechanical problem.
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codes → activate → problem
Passengers sent out status reports and pleas for help from onboard.
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Passengers → send → help
“We’re here during a hijacking of the plane,” Asaf Rejwan, one of the passengers, said in Hebrew with blood trickling down his forehead and nose.
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blood → ’re → forehead
“We control the terrorist.
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We → control → terrorist
Whoever’s hearing me, we need help.”
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we → hear → help
The Israeli military reportedly scrambled fighter jets fearing a 9/11 scenario mimicking the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, when hijacked planes were flown into buildings in the United States.
uncertain
planes → scramble → States
The plane made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
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plane → make → Tabuk
…and 17 more, not listed.
The Aporia
