For the passengers aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073, what began as an ordinary flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv turned within seconds into a terrifying struggle for survival.

And then, one thing after another went right.

The dramatic incident has generated intense scrutiny over exactly what happened aboard the aircraft and how such a dangerous situation was allowed to develop. But alongside those questions, another aspect of the story has resonated deeply across the Jewish world: the extraordinary chain of events that allowed everyone aboard to survive.

Taken individually, each might be explained as a fortunate circumstance. Taken together, they form a remarkable story of hashgachah pratis.

1. The Plunge Was Stopped in Time

Flight-tracking data show the Boeing 737 MAX dropping more than 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds, from a cruising altitude of approximately 34,000 feet.

Passengers described the aircraft plunging violently, briefly stabilizing, and then descending again.

Yet the catastrophic descent was ultimately stopped.

At thousands of feet lost in mere seconds, every moment mattered.

2. Yaniv Knew What to Do — Because He Watched a Documentary Series

Among the passengers who rushed forward was 50-year-old Israeli plumber Yaniv Hayun.

After getting into the cockpit and helping overpower the suspected attacker, Hayun found himself confronting another terrifying problem: the aircraft itself was still diving.

Hayun was not a pilot.

Yet he grabbed the aircraft's controls and pulled back, helping bring it out of the dive until a qualified pilot could take over.

How did an ordinary passenger know what to do?

Hayun later gave an extraordinary explanation: he was a regular viewer of Air Crash Investigation, also known as Mayday, the documentary series that reconstructs aviation disasters and explains what happens inside the cockpit.

Something he had absorbed while watching a television documentary series suddenly became crucial knowledge at precisely the moment it was needed.

Of all the passengers who could have reached that cockpit, one of them happened to know what action to take.

3. Two Additional Pilots Happened to Be Aboard

Perhaps one of the most remarkable details to emerge was the presence of two additional Flydubai pilots aboard the aircraft.

And according to subsequent reporting, their presence was not related to any security concern.

The additional pilots had reportedly been assigned because possible regional rerouting could have lengthened the flight and pushed the original crew beyond permitted duty hours.

It was an ordinary operational decision.

Yet when the captain was critically wounded and the co-pilot was subdued, there were two additional qualified Flydubai pilots already aboard who could take over the aircraft.

On almost any other flight, their presence might have been entirely unremarkable.

On FZ1073, it became crucial.

4. The Wounded Captain Managed to Open the Armoured Cockpit Door

This may have been one of the most consequential moments of all.

Captain Smit Machchhar had been stabbed and was lying bloodied on the cockpit floor.

Yet before collapsing, he managed to activate the release for the reinforced cockpit door.

The significance of that action is difficult to overstate.

Modern cockpit doors are deliberately designed to prevent people in the cabin from forcing their way inside. The very security feature intended to protect an aircraft could now have prevented anyone from reaching the cockpit.

But despite his wounds, Machchhar managed to release the door.

Passengers who entered found him lying so close to it that his body itself made getting inside difficult.

Had the captain lost consciousness just moments earlier, those outside might never have been able to enter.

Instead, with what little strength he had left, he opened the way for the rescue.

5. Passengers Were Willing to Run Toward the Danger

An unlocked door would have accomplished nothing without people willing to go through it.

Hayun and other passengers rushed toward the cockpit, confronted the suspected attacker and managed to overpower and restrain him.

These were ordinary passengers who suddenly found themselves confronting a life-or-death situation thousands of feet above the ground.

They acted.

And because they did, control of the cockpit could be restored.

6. The Aircraft Was Still Flyable

Even after the attacker was subdued, survival was not guaranteed.

The aircraft had just undergone an extraordinary series of violent altitude changes. Regaining the cockpit would mean little if the plane could no longer be controlled.

But it could.

The additional Flydubai pilots aboard were able to take over and ultimately guide the aircraft toward an emergency landing.

7. A Suitable Airport Was Within Reach

The flight would never reach its intended destination.

Instead, the pilots diverted to Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where the aircraft was able to make an emergency landing.

A flight bound for Ben Gurion Airport came down safely on Saudi soil.

8. Everyone Aboard Survived

This is ultimately the fact around which everything else revolves.

An airliner cruising at approximately 34,000 feet suddenly lost more than 14,000 feet in less than half a minute amid a violent struggle inside its cockpit.

The captain was seriously wounded.

The aircraft was diving.

Yet the captain remained conscious long enough to release the cockpit door. Passengers had the courage to enter. Yaniv Hayun somehow knew what to do at the controls. Two additional professional pilots happened to be aboard. The aircraft remained controllable. And a safe landing was possible.

Each link depended on another.

Change the timing of any one of them by seconds, and the outcome could have been unimaginably different.

Instead, everyone aboard survived.

A Mizmor L'Sodah at the Kosel

The extraordinary rescue was met not only with relief, but with public hoda'ah.

The following morning at the Kosel, tens of thousands joined in the recitation of Mizmor L'Sodah, led by Rav Shmuel Rabinovitch, Rav of the Kosel and the holy sites, in gratitude for the lives saved aboard Flight FZ1073.

Rav Rabinovitch noted that had the Beis HaMikdash been standing, such a deliverance would have called for a Korban Todah — a thanksgiving offering.

There will rightly be investigations into how the incident occurred, what security failures may have allowed it to happen, and the precise circumstances and motives behind the attack.

But at the Kosel, the response to the ending of the story was simpler:

מִזְמוֹר לְתוֹדָה — הָרִיעוּ לַ׳ כָּל הָאָרֶץ

A song of thanksgiving.

One can explain each link in the chain.

It is the chain itself that is so difficult to ignore.