New Delhi: Canadian documentary series on aviation disasters, Mayday, became a real-life guide during a mid-air emergency aboard a Flydubai flight carrying 174 passengers and crew.
A flight travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv on 30 September was diverted to Saudi Arabia after one pilot stabbed the other. The incident, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was “apparently intended to bring the aircraft down as it approached Israel.”
Netanyahu said that an Israeli passenger told him that the aircraft “went into a spin and began to descend” before passengers and crew members entered the cockpit.
Yaniv Hayun, a passenger, entered the cockpit after the injured pilot, Captain Smit Machchhar, managed to unbolt the cockpit door from inside. As the aircraft rapidly lost altitude, Hayun recognised the aircraft’s primary flight controls, including the control column, or yoke, from years of watching Mayday.
“I pulled on the yoke to level the plane and stop the dive. Fortunately, I had some basic knowledge of aviation from the Mayday Air Crash series,” he told Netanyahu.
Recalling what he had seen on the television programme, Hayun pulled back on the yoke to bring the aircraft out of its steep descent, keeping the nose up until emergency procedures could be established.
Named after the SOS signal, the documentary first aired in 2003. Produced by Toronto-based Cineflix Productions and broadcast internationally by National Geographic, Mayday breaks down complex aviation incidents using flight-data recordings, eyewitness accounts, cockpit transcripts and CGI recreations. Across more than 24 seasons, the show has examined hundreds of real aviation incidents.
Mayday, which has been on television for more than two decades, is known by different titles in different parts of the world. While it is called Mayday in Canada, it airs as Air Crash Investigation across the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia on National Geographic, with British actor Jonathan Aris as narrator. In the US, it is broadcast as Air Disasters and Air Emergency.
In India, the show is currently streaming on JioHotstar.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)