Corriere’s timeline says al-Hammami attacked Captain Smit Machchhar from behind with the cockpit’s emergency axe at 9:20 a.m., five minutes after saying he wanted to pray. The wounded captain opened the door during the struggle. At 9:22 a.m., passenger Yaniv Hayoun pulled back on the controls after the co-pilot tried to destroy onboard systems and was removed from the cockpit. Two additional pilots intervened at 9:25 a.m. and restored normal flight.
Machchhar separately told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the attacker closed the door after he first opened it. “When I opened it again, I saw people waiting to rush inside,” he said. The aircraft landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. UAE prosecutors described the attack as an attempted terrorist operation, and Flydubai’s Tel Aviv service remains suspended until further notice.