By Harold Pease Ph. D.
To Google I posed the question, Did any newspaper, magazine, news outlets identify the events of FlyDubai Flight 1073 as a miracle? Only 10 references came up of which only one “The FlyDubai Near Miss was a Nightmare, and a Miracle,” dared to use the word in its title. Basically the media avoids God had anything to do with it, giving preference to everything but. We live in a world that is unapologetically hostile to God being in the affairs of man. Of course, all disasters are nightmares to those experiencing them: floods, fires, hurricanes, earthquakes. But in them miracles occur. Only Glenn Beck unequivocally called FlyDubai 1073 a miracle (“True Miracle: What if Those Passengers Had Stayed in Their Seats,” Glenn Beck, YouTube).
Miracles are when someone beats insurmountable odds that should have happened as a consequence of some action, but didn’t. Almost all of the 10 sources identified by Google noted the extra ordinary actions of the passengers and crew that prevented a tragedy, or the heroism involved in the events, but divine intervention in those events were mostly ignored. They phrased the Sept. 30, 2026 event: impossible odds, the crazy unnoticed details in the plane hijacking, everything was in perfect order, etc. but otherwise carefully avoided the word miracle.
LibertyUnderFire has assembled a list of miracles for why we believe an honest person can only describe it as divine intervention and we too openly use the word miracle. 1). Indian pilot, Captain Smit Machchhar was attacked with an ax kept in the cockpit for emergency evacuations should it be needed. No one ever thought a fellow pilot would be the danger. A radicalized co-pilot, Hamam al-Hammami, an Omanian, was. While under his surprise assault Captain Smit Machchhar with the ax blow to the head from behind, and very savagely stabbed several times, was still able to send two distress signals, called squawk messages. The first, Code 7700, at 5:00 A.M., to alert the aviation world that the aircraft was experiencing a general emergency. The second, Code 7500, at 5:07 A.M., that the plane was highjacked or under unlawful interference. Both signals without the pilot having to verbalize anything. These messages were sent from the panel by the pilot pushing a button. His last amazing miracle was his ability to unlock the cabin door by a knob in front of him or by leaving his chair and actually going to the door also while sustaining numerous blows and cuts to his body from his assailant.
2). Most passengers were asleep at 5:00 A.M. in the morning but a 6 year old girl Nina Manes, using the bathroom near the cockpit, heard disturbing sounds and asked what was going on. She set off the alarm by yelling, “Daddy, I don’t want to die.” The girls mother yelled, “They are murdering the pilot!” Passengers awakened and began to help. What if the captain’s ax wound to the head had killed him instantly, as likely intended, and there was no noise from the cockpit to disturb the girl? And, God doesn’t intervene in the affairs of man!?!
The girls Jewish mother later told reporters, “It’s a great miracle, really. A miracle, and another miracle, and another miracle. The door opened. It's something I still can't understand and its certainly the heroism of Captain Smit pilot. It's the beginning of the chain of events that took place here. If he hadn't opened the door from the inside, we probably wouldn't be talking here today. And the door just opened. It's something I saw. I saw it all and I understood, and I just yelled. ‘They're murdering the pilot. Let's help. Let's help.… I could see in my eyes that he [the co-pilot] was stabbing him.” She credits God with, "He opened the door.”
3). Yaniv Hayown, a plumber by profession with no pilots license or known flying experience, opened the unlocked cockpit door, placed the captain’s assailant in a chokehold, simultaneous pulling him backward, turned him over to others, then pulled the control stick toward himself leveling the descending plane ending the planes deep dive downward. He had learned some basic aviation knowledge from watching “Aircraft Crash Investigation,” a National Geographic TV series that recreated real aircraft accidents, most importantly that pulling back on console levers levels the airplane, pushing forward descends the aircraft. How many miracles accompanied all these actions? Most passengers were asleep at 5:00 A.M. in the morning.
4). A dentist, Dr. Shota Musayev came forward to help the injured captain who was reported to have said to him. “Don’t let me die.” He stopped the massive bleeding from numerous wounds and provided oxygen among other things. Other Israeli passengers simultaneously restrained the attacking co-pilot. Nobody had handcuffs or rope to tie up the co-pilot. A passenger had just enough “head phone wire” cords to do the job. Two additional miracles, perhaps.
5). With injured Captain Smit Machchhar losing much blood, passing out, seemingly dying, and the co-pilot tied up in headphone cords, the cockpit lacked any pilot to fly the plane. Two off-duty FlyDubai pilots just happened to be on the distressed plane; were awakened and able to replace the wounded pilot and terrorist co-pilot. What if they hadn’t been flying as passengers? 180 passengers, four of them Americans, plus staff, walked away alive with no wreckage at Ben Gurion Airport the intended target, and God can’t be credited? And that’s not a miracle!?!
6). The plane dropped 14,000 feet in 29 seconds, 10 times the normal descent, far exceeding the structure capabilities of the aircraft as evidenced by the wind damaged rudder. It was in grave danger of coming apart, but didn’t. This plane is structured to handle a G force of 2.5 g’s, 1.0 in negative G’s. This extreme radical dive could have exceeded that by multiple times. All the above rescue activities happened against this force, even the leveling of the plane — a miracle. With this G force it is difficult to control your own body, likely yet another miracle. another miracle.
7). The captain's physicians in Israel, just announced that Machchhar suffered a depressed skull fracture with a bone fragment driven into the motor region of the brain making it far more incredible to do what he did – a much larger miracle. His response, "I know that God saved me." End of a grouping of miracles, viewed by the entire world, not afraid to put God in the affairs of man.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. Read his weekly columns at www.LibertyUnderFire.org. Column #893.
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