Mayday TV Show Helped Passenger Save FlyDubai Hijacked Boeing 737 MAX 8
A passenger who watched Canadian aviation documentary Mayday pulled back the yoke of a nosediving FlyDubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 during a hijacking attempt.
By The Aviation Hub
5 min read
Updated October 19, 2026 
Mayday, the long-running Canadian aviation documentary series, played a direct role in last month's attempted hijacking of a FlyDubai Boeing 737 MAX 8 bound for Tel Aviv, after a passenger credited the show with teaching him to pull back on the aircraft's yoke during a sudden nosedive.
Passenger Yaniv Hayun told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he acted on knowledge gained from watching the programme, known internationally as Air Crash Investigation. According to The Globe and Mail, Hayun was briefly in control of the yoke before two off-duty pilots took over and brought the aircraft to a safe landing in Saudi Arabia.
What Hayun Did and Why It Mattered
Hayun's intervention came during what the show's executive producer describes as an unprecedented situation. Mayday executive producer Alex Bystram told The Globe and Mail he had never before heard of a passenger using knowledge from the show to act in an emergency.
"I've heard of pilots using our show as a training tool, mostly on what not to do in these events, but I've never really heard of a passenger using what they've learned to save an airplane," Bystram said. "Actually, I've never heard of a passenger trying to save an airplane, period."
Bystram acknowledged the action carried real risk. He noted that pulling back too forcefully on the controls could cause structural damage to the aircraft, but added that Hayun avoided that outcome. "If he gave the pilots behind him a few extra seconds to recover the plane, that's great," Bystram said.
You can track FlyDubai and other carriers using the Airline Search tool, which covers scheduled and charter operators worldwide.
What Mayday Is and How It Works
Mayday has aired since 2003 and is produced by Cineflix. According to The Globe and Mail, it now airs in more than 150 countries and 45 languages, and is entering its 27th season. The show dramatises real aviation disasters using cockpit voice recordings and official investigation reports.
Bystram said the programme works closely with official bodies including the National Transportation Safety Board in the United States and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch in the United Kingdom. "Most investigative agencies are happy to deal with us because they know that we understand the material, they know that we're not going to sensationalize these accidents and that we're going to discuss the lessons that were learned as a result," he said.
Production takes place at a studio in Etobicoke, where the team maintains a cockpit set that can be reconfigured to represent different aircraft types, an air traffic control set, various investigative office sets, and a half-length passenger cabin.
Its Reach Into Aviation Training
The show's influence inside the aviation community appears to go well beyond general audiences. Bystram told The Globe and Mail that Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University uses episodes in classrooms to show how pilots have reacted in specific situations and what the outcomes were. He also said, anecdotally, that pilot lounges around the world keep copies available.
A study in Australia has examined the show's use as a teaching strategy for pilots and found a positive effect on learning outcomes, according to The Globe and Mail.
Bystram said the show has also been used to highlight the well-documented problem of cockpit hierarchy, where first officers or flight engineers hesitate to challenge a domineering captain. He described a recent episode covering a Pakistan flight that crashed after the captain berated his first officer for almost an hour before landing, leaving the first officer too afraid to speak, resulting in the aircraft striking a mountainside outside of Islamabad.
The Show's Unexpected Brushes With Popular Culture
Mayday has also crossed into wider public debate through its influence on Nathan Fielder's television project The Rehearsal. According to The Globe and Mail, Fielder has said the second season was inspired by his study of Mayday and a recurring pattern in black box transcripts about first officers struggling to challenge captains.
Bystram said the production team had suspected Fielder was watching Mayday before he confirmed it publicly, because the references he made matched accidents the show had covered. "We are glad he found some inspiration and managed to shine a light on what is a very important issue in aviation," Bystram said.
What the Producer Says the Show Teaches Viewers
Beyond its professional applications, Bystram described an unexpected effect the show has on general audiences. He said viewers frequently tell him they find it comforting rather than alarming.
"What our show illustrates is that it takes a really unlikely series of events to bring down an airplane," he said. The framing of each episode around what went wrong and what was learned is, he argued, ultimately reassuring for frequent flyers.
The Invitation Hayun Has Not Yet Accepted
Despite the extraordinary circumstances, Hayun has given only one interview at the airport and has not spoken publicly since. Bystram said the production team has tried to contact him without success, and has extended an open invitation for him to visit a taping in Toronto.
The FlyDubai incident, including the sequence of events during the nosedive and the safe landing in Saudi Arabia, is part of our ongoing incident coverage at the Squawk 7700 hub, where you can find the live emergency board and incident archive.
The Bottom Line
The FlyDubai hijacking attempt produced an outcome that few in aviation could have anticipated: a documentary series made for general audiences contributing, in some small measure, to the safe resolution of a live emergency aboard a Boeing 737 MAX 8. Bystram is careful not to overstate what happened, noting that pulling back incorrectly could have caused its own damage, but the net result was a positive one.
The story has given the show's producers cause to think differently about who their audience is and what those viewers take away. Whether it prompts any formal rethinking of passenger safety briefings is a question the industry itself has not yet addressed publicly. We will update our coverage if FlyDubai or investigators release further information about the incident.
Continue to follow The Aviation Hub for more analysis and insight.
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