On 30 September, Flydubai flight FZ1073, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 bound for Tel Aviv, experienced a serious cockpit emergency when the first officer attacked the captain and tried to seize control of the aircraft.

Two Flydubai pilots were on board as deadhead crew for other duties. When the attack began, they went to the cockpit, helped calm the situation and landed the plane safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

The incident underlines a fundamental aviation safety rule: never build a system that assumes everything will work perfectly. Airlines keep extra crew, spare equipment and alternative procedures so a single failure does not endanger a flight.

A comparable lesson came on 4 November 2010, when Qantas Flight 32 suffered an engine failure that damaged several systems on an Airbus A380. The crew’s use of remaining functional systems allowed the aircraft to return to Singapore and land safely.

These cases demonstrate that reserve pilots and layered redundancy are not unnecessary expenses but essential safety nets that can turn a potential disaster into a controlled landing.