Yaniv Hayun, the Israeli passenger who burst into the cockpit during the Flydubai flight drama, offered an unexpected explanation after describing how he helped overpower the suspected attacker and then grabbed the aircraft’s controls: he watches “Air Crash Investigation.”
During a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hayun recounted pulling back on the controls after the attacker had been subdued. When Netanyahu asked, “You pulled them?” Hayun replied: “Yes, I watch ‘Air Crash Investigation.’”
The Canadian documentary series, known internationally as both “Mayday” and “Air Crash Investigation,” first aired in 2003 and is produced by Cineflix Productions. Its focus is major aviation accidents and the investigations that seek to explain how they happened.
The series combines dramatic reconstructions of events in cockpits and passenger cabins with interviews and computer-generated animation illustrating what unfolded in the air.
From ‘Air Crash Investigation’
(Photo: National Geographic)
According to the production company, episodes draw on cockpit recordings, accident reports and witness testimony. Alongside the moments of crisis, the series follows investigators as they gather evidence, test competing scenarios and identify possible causes, ranging from maintenance failures and dangerous cargo to extreme weather, with the aim of understanding how similar disasters might be prevented.
(Photo: AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Not every story ends in a fatal crash. One episode examined an aircraft in New Zealand whose landing gear failed to deploy, forcing its pilots to land without wheels while bringing everyone aboard to safety.
The series has also covered hijackings. In one episode, “African Hijack,” it revisited the November 1996 hijacking of an Ethiopian Airlines flight traveling from Addis Ababa to Nairobi.
Flydubai itself has appeared in the series before. The episode “Holding Pattern” examines the March 2016 crash of Flydubai Flight 981 in Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
The series is available in Israel on Disney+ and National Geographic.