I see a movie coming.
Weren’t the passenger pilots scheduled to fly that same plane back to Dubai (aka deadheading)?
… and out of all possible dates, it happened TODAY, sept 30th!!!
What are the chances!!!
serious Q: how easy/difficult is is for a pilot/co-pilot to bring a knife with him? I assume they run through the same safety-checks as Joe Doe in cattle-class …That is a central plot-part that I haven’t seen discussed …
I assume they don’t. I see them walk through the security checkpoint all the time without being scanned.
From my memory (heavily skewed by international-transatlatic flights, no domestic US-flights in many years): Crew goes through the same security checks as regular Joe Doe’s, but have privileges (jump-the-line-pass)
waiting for our resident commercial pilots to swing by…
how much easier is it for
a.) overall crew (incl. FA)
b.) cockpit crew (just pilot/copilot/FO) → if there is a different treatment pls explain
to bring any “hardwear” with them, beyond the proverbial nailclipper … compare and contrast with regular passengers, pls … 
I know in the US it is fairly easy for a pilot to get a license to carry a gun on the plane. Don’t know about Dubai.
Beyond that many pilots and FAs “commute”. IOW live in City A and ride a jet to work in City B. And back again 2-4 days later when their “workeeek” is done.
Folks like that can score 4 or 5 round trips = 8 or 10 flights per month as an unpaid, but also non-paying, passenger.
I personally tried real hard to not work. I also almost always lived at my base. I knew peoplecl who rode more hours & legs commuting to/from work than I actually worked. That’s nuts.
Which is all not applicable to flyDubai going to Tel Aviv.
Deadheading, IOW passengering at the carrier’s behest while on the clock for duty & (usually) pay, to position you before or after working flights is a necessary evil.
The smaller & thinner the carrier, the more necessary it becomes.
Not exactly.
It is, or at least used to be, fairly easy for a US pilot to volunteer to become a deputized limited duty Federal LEO. Who got a gun they had to carry at work as their “reward” for their efforts.
As best I remember, the program is now languishing and new slots are very hard to come by. The real LEO establishment has hated this idea since Day 1 in 2002. I offer no opinion here.
None of which is relevant to anything but US domestic flights. AFAIK no other country has embraced the idea of arming pilots.
For US crew in the US only …
There is a program for active crew, pilot and FA alike, to bypass all security inspections. You’re still subject to the same regs about not carrying weapons or other prohibited stuff. Like big bottles of shampoo. There’s just no enforcement. It’s honor system.
Backed up by a computerized random gotcha that sometimes says “No bypass for you today; go through regular passenger screening subject to all their rules.”
And if they find prohibited shit in your luggage, like a 6oz shampoo, you just lost your bypass privilege for a year. Oops.
The frequency of random checks ensured you’d get hit about once per normal work month. And always when you’re running late.
See here for more:
I have no idea what similar programs may exist worldwide for crews in other countries.
And paramedics and nurses. They don’t ask for doctors. They ask for people with medical training
Though I suspect that, even if the flight attendants (or personnel of some other venue) did ask “Is there a doctor here?”, a paramedic would still raise their hand.
Whereas they say the worst place to have a medical emergency is the unemployment office…
He may not have been a physician, but he knew some basic first aid and how to use it.
If you’re referring to flight 93 the passengers never had complete control of the plane. At most they had breached the cockpit door and were struggling with the hijacker pilots.
CeeCee Lyles called her husband once more from a cell phone and told him the passengers were forcing their way into the cockpit.[27] Jarrah began to roll the airplane left and right to knock the passengers off balance. He told al-Ghamdi in the cockpit at 09:58:57, “They want to get in here. Hold, hold from the inside. Hold from the inside. Hold.”[46] Jarrah changed tactics at 09:59:52 and pitched the nose of the airplane up and down to disrupt the assault.[30]
The cockpit voice recorder captured the sounds of crashing, screaming, and the shattering of glass and plates.[79] Three times in a period of five seconds there were shouts of pain or distress from a hijacker outside the cockpit, suggesting a hijacker who was standing guard outside the cockpit was being attacked by the passengers.[29]: 103 Jarrah stabilized the plane at 10:00:03.[30][80] Five seconds later, he asked, “Is that it? Shall we finish it off?” al-Ghamdi responded, “No. Not yet. When they all come, we finish it off.”[46] Jarrah once again pitched the airplane up and down.
A passenger in the background cried, “In the cockpit! If we don’t, we’ll die!” at 10:00:25. Sixteen seconds later, another passenger yelled, “Roll it!”, possibly referring to using the food cart.[30] The voice recorder captured the sound of the passengers using the food cart as a battering ram against the cockpit door.[29]: 104
Jarrah ceased the violent maneuvers at 10:01:00 and recited the takbir twice. He then asked al-Ghamdi, “Is that it? I mean, shall we put it down?” al-Ghamdi responded, “Yes, put it in it, and pull it down.”[30] The passengers continued their assault and at 10:02:17, a male passenger said, “Turn it up!” A second later, al-Ghamdi said, “Pull it down! Pull it down!” At 10:02:33, Jarrah made a desperate plea in Arabic, repeatedly screaming “Give it to me!”, possibly referring to the plane’s yoke.[29]: 104–105 At 10:03:02, amidst screams and shouts, al-Ghamdi, began shouting the takbir, his cries drowned out by a passenger shouting “No!”[81]
The plane then crashed into an empty field in Stonycreek, Pennsylvania, about 20 minutes’ flying time from Washington, D.C.[30] The last entry on the voice recorder was made at 10:03:09.[46] The last piece of flight data was recorded at 10:03:10.[82]
There is disagreement among some family members of the passengers and the investigative officials as to whether the passengers managed to breach the cockpit or even break the cockpit door. The 9/11 Commission Report concluded that “the hijackers remained at the controls but must have judged that the passengers were only seconds from overcoming them”.[30] Many of the passengers’ family members, having heard the audio recordings, believe the passengers breached the cockpit[83] and killed at least one of the hijackers guarding the cockpit door; some interpreted the audio as suggesting that the passengers and hijackers struggled for control of the yoke.[84][85]
I watched GaryBpilot YouTube last night.
He mentions the plane was in flight and most passengers normally aren’t wearing seat belts.
The plane’s rapid descent should throw people out of their seats. Some might hit the ceiling.
Has anyone heard passengers mentioned injuries in interviews?
The cockpit voice recorders and black box will answer a lot of questions.
Yes, one report said there was one minor injury.
I’ve been amazed there were so few, since (as you noted) I’d expect a good number of passengers weren’t wearing their belts (though most probably were, as per the recommended practice).
Someone mentioned the particular g-forces were mainly pinning people down into their seats, so that probably helped – but there surely were moments when the g-forces were doing other things to people.
The first person into the cockpit was apparently a plumber named Yaniv who was able to stabilize the plane out of its initial dive based on information he learned from watching TV shows about airline disasters. This prevented the plane from crashing for long enough that one of the passengers who was a trained pilot was able to take over.
Wow! Is that confirmed, from a reliable source? If so, wow…already looking forward to the MentourPilot video on this.
Is what confirmed? That he said this in interviews? Yes. That it actually happened? I guess we would need the black box recordings to be analyzed for that?
I don’t know Yaniv, so I can’t tell you how reliable he is 
If the airplane is in a steep dive, how feasible is it that multiple people could get to the front of the aircraft, subdue someone, and then pull the plane out of the dive?