Survivor of Hijacking Attempt Recounts Terror on Flydubai Flight

A Flydubai flight experienced a life-threatening emergency when the pilot attempted to hijack the plane, plunging passengers into terror. Among them was Miriam Shira Ohayon, a bereaved sister who survived the October 7th Hamas attacks. In the midst of the chaos, Ohayon recorded herself praying tearfully, expressing her fear and desperate wish to live. "Mom, Mom, Mom. Screams of terror. You are the greatest name in the world, there is none besides You, there is none besides You. I see my mother today," she was documented saying during the harrowing moments.

Ohayon's journey was particularly poignant as she was traveling in memory of her brother, Avitar, who fell in battle. Their planned trip together had become a solo pilgrimage after his death. "Avitar and I were supposed to fly together, we really planned it, and after Avitar fell, I realized I was traveling alone," Ohayon shared in an interview. The flight, intended to honor her brother's memory, turned into another traumatic, life-threatening event.

Experiencing the plane's dramatic dive from her seat in economy class, Ohayon faced a tangible threat to her life. "That horror and fear of death that you really feel, it will simply never pass in the way it truly was," she recounted. For a sister who had already endured profound loss, the thought of her mother waiting at the airport became her primary motivation to survive. "I looked into her eyes and told her: I must not die, I cannot die. My mother is waiting for me at the airport," she recalled her thoughts and words during the peak of the incident.