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A passenger aboard a Flydubai flight that was violently disrupted mid-journey has given a harrowing account of how he held his two young children close while the aircraft plunged thousands of feet in a matter of seconds, after one of the pilots was stabbed by a man attempting to seize control of the cockpit.
Adam Polovincik, a performance marketing analyst travelling home with his wife and their six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter, told BBC Newshour that the ordeal began roughly two hours into the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday. What had been a routine return leg after a family holiday in Singapore and Thailand quickly turned into a scene of chaos and fear at cruising altitude.
According to flight tracking data, the plane dropped more than 17,000 feet — approximately 5,200 metres — in under two minutes. Polovincik, seated in aisle 13, initially assumed the sudden loss of altitude was caused by an air pocket, a common and usually harmless turbulence phenomenon. But as the descent persisted for what felt like nearly a full minute, it became clear that something far more serious was unfolding. Passengers who were not strapped into their seats were thrown to the floor.
Within moments, the cabin erupted. Polovincik described hearing screams ring out as people shouted that there was blood and that a stabbing had taken place, with urgent calls for help. Despite the rising panic, he said the reality of the situation set in almost instantly — a recognition that there was virtually nothing passengers could do to influence the outcome at that moment.
Rather than surrendering to fear, Polovincik focused on shielding his children from the worst of the terror. He hugged them tightly and told them everything would be fine, framing the violent descent as a simple mechanical malfunction. He worked to keep his face composed and his voice steady, determined that his children would not see the panic he felt inside. He acknowledged, however, that a high degree of alarm inevitably spread through the cabin.
The flight was carrying an unusually large number of families with young children, a detail Polovincik attributed to the timing of the journey, which fell toward the end of a Jewish holiday period. That meant many of those on board were grappling not only with their own fear but with the challenge of calming terrified young passengers as the aircraft continued its dramatic drop.
After roughly 10 to 15 minutes, a passenger emerged from the cockpit area and announced that the situation was under control and that other crew members were now flying the plane. The reassurance came as a relief, but it also created a new difficulty: with bloodied passengers beginning to move through the cabin, it became harder for Polovincik to maintain the story that the incident had merely been a technical fault.
He reserved particular praise for the flight's captain, identified as Indian pilot Capt Smit Machchhar, who fought off his attacker and opened the cockpit door, allowing passengers to rush in and help subdue the assailant. Polovincik said that without the captain's actions in opening that door, he and others might not have survived to tell their story, adding that he could not adequately express his gratitude to the man.
Reflecting on the sequence of events that allowed passengers and crew to overpower the attacker and regain control of the aircraft, Polovincik said that although he is not a religious person, he could not shake the sense that a higher hand had been at work, arranging events in a way that made survival possible. He called the outcome remarkable.
The stabbed pilot was taken to hospital and is reported to be in a stable condition. The alleged attacker was arrested in Saudi Arabia, where the aircraft was diverted after the situation on board was brought under control. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it is too early to determine whether Iran was involved in the attack, though he noted that the suspect had undergone what he described as Islamist radical indoctrination. Netanyahu also told Fox News that the arrested man is expected to be transferred to the United Arab Emirates, the country from which the flight departed.
Polovincik also highlighted the treatment passengers received after the plane landed at Tabuk Airport in north-west Saudi Arabia. He emphasised that the passengers, who were almost all Israeli, were looked after well despite the absence of formal diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Water, food and coffee were provided, and even sweets were handed out to the children — a gesture of humanity that stood in stark contrast to the violence that had preceded it.
The passengers were later flown on to Tel Aviv on a separate flight on Wednesday, where they were met at the airport by crowds of well-wishers playing music, singing, dancing and waving Israeli flags. The emotional welcome marked the end of a journey that had begun as a family holiday and descended into a life-threatening emergency.
For Polovincik, the experience has left a lasting mark. He described the attack as a terrible conclusion to what had otherwise been an amazing family trip, and said it would take considerable time for his family to process everything that happened. The incident has also drawn renewed attention to cockpit security and the vulnerability of commercial flights to attacks from within, as investigators continue to piece together how the assailant was able to carry out the stabbing.
The case has raised difficult questions about aviation safety protocols, particularly regarding how a person could attack a pilot in a sealed cockpit environment. It has also underscored the unpredictable nature of modern air travel, where routine journeys can transform in seconds into scenarios demanding extraordinary courage from crew and passengers alike. For the families on board, the memory of that steep, terrifying plunge — and the unlikely survival that followed — will endure long after the plane touched down safely.
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