How Passengers Rescued Their Own Plane

Welcome to the greatest show on FX is a HS 13. What do you sense? Harder of our deal. The star-studded cast returns. Something wicked this way comes. You all got to unite! I'll drink to that. If you're gonna rise up and rule the world, you better get yourself a damn sense of humor. FX is a HS 13. No streaming on Hulu. It's Thursday, October 1st, and the attack was coming from inside the cockpit. Start here. A pilot stabs his colleague, then tries to take down a plane full of Israelis. Suddenly that airplane started like a roller coaster. The only reason this wasn't a historic catastrophe was because of the bravery of those on board. We'll take you to Tel Aviv. The accuser did not tell police she was raped at first. Should it matter? That was the very document that the district attorney said he used to determine that no crime occurred. New insight into the claims that have rocked Cornell University, and as October starts, some find their benefits are ending. It's going to be harder for a lot of families to afford food. The new food assistance rules taking effect this morning. From ABC News, this is Start Here. I'm Brad Milky. This year, of course, marked 25 years since the 9/11 attacks. And because of all the renewed focus on it this year, I heard more questions about it than ever, particularly from younger people, some of whom asked, "What made this so different?" Like, genuinely, we've grown up in an era of terror attacks and mass shootings. Why was this so transformative? And there are lots of answers to that question, of course. The scope of the death, thousands of people, the scale of the buildings, you had the Pentagon itself, and the World Trade Center was just utterly gargantuan. It was impossible to conceive of these things being erased in a few minutes. But another reason these attacks signaled the new era was that terrorists had never really had access to such large weapons before. Car bombs and rocket propelled grenades are one thing, but a jetliner? The idea that someone could take over a cockpit and use a plane as a weapon changed everything about what we thought we knew about national security. It would be 25 years before the TSA started relaxing. Some of the restrictions it had imposed on security lines. Well, yesterday, just weeks after that anniversary, we got a terrifying new lesson of what a determined attacker on a plane is capable of. Luckily, though, we also learned what some determined passengers are capable of as they prevented what could have been an absolutely catastrophic attack in the Middle East. So yesterday morning, a plane departs from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. It's carrying people from all over the world, including 170 Israelis on board. That's key to understand, because what happens next, just a couple hours later, is someone tries to take the plane down, and it appears that this was one of the pilots in the cockpit. ABC's foreign correspondent, Jordana Miller, is based in Israel. She's currently at the Tel Aviv airport where this flight was originally supposed to land. So, Jordana, what happened here? Well, according to the passengers on this flight, about two hours into fly Dubai, flight from Dubai on its way to Tel Aviv, the plane started to shake quite strongly, and then suddenly took a massive nose dive. Suddenly, the airplane started like a roller coaster, deep, deep down, like 20 or 30 seconds, and then balance, and then again, deep down for 15 seconds, and then balance. And everyone on the plane, according to the passengers we talked to, were shocked. They didn't know what was happening. While it was happening, there was crazy screaming in chaos, and I was also focused on the fact that I'm about to die. And in the front of the plane, there was one person who heard screaming and yelling, and what sounded like bumping inside the cockpit. And suddenly, the cockpit was opened. There was an Israeli sitting right in the front row there who saw that, heard the noise, and opened the cockpit door to discover that the first officer had stabbed the captain, the main pilot several times. First of all, we pulled the attack route. I pulled the attacker out, and after I pulled them out, it took control of the plane. And this isn't Israeli named Yinev Hayun. He is one of many heroes in this story, because first of all, the captain was so severely injured, but he still managed to somehow open that cockpit, enough that someone noticed Yinev and came in. Now, Yinev put the attacker in a headlock, he says, and dragged him out, called for help, and two other Israeli men came in, named Svika and Asaf. They came in, and they basically wrestled him to the ground, subdued the attacker. And then another hero was one of the doctors on board who came and provided really a life-saving treatment to the pilot who had been stabbed in the back, in the head, in the arms, and patched him up, enough that he could go back into the cockpit with two reserve pilots that were on board just by chance, and they were able to land this plane in Saudi Arabia. The sense of relief that I felt was when we landed in Saudi Arabia. That moment, we realized that we were safe, that we were safe. As one of the passengers, when I talked to them and came back to Israel, said, "This story is filled with so much horror, but also so many miracles." And everyone seemed so grateful that they had survived this. Everyone seemed to say they really thought they were going to die. In Jordan, just to go back, is it suspected that the first officer here was then trying to take over the plane and smashing into the ground, like was he trying to ram into the building, and was any of this because of the fact that there were so many Israelis on board? There's so many unanswered questions, Brad. We do not know what the intent was, not yet, of the first officer. He appears to have wanted to kill the captain and take over the plane. Did he do it because he was targeting Israelis and wanted to carry out some kind of terror attack against Israel? Or did he do it because he had mental problems? There's been precedent for that. Just taking down the plane that you're in, regardless of who's in the back, I see. That could be. That's one possibility. We really don't know. But in any case, the heroes here saved everyone on board, because that plane was heading down. It matters if this was a terror attack, and I think these Israelis are obviously investigating that, but all of these lives were saved whether it was terror or not. Well, and one thing I found interesting was, you know, this plane lands in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis still technically don't recognize Israel as a country, like they don't have diplomatic relations. And yet the Saudis did make an effort to get all of these Israelis home as quickly as possible. There was a special flight that came into Tel Aviv yesterday. You could actually hear them being welcomed on live ATC.net. Welcome to Israel. Thank you for bringing our passengers safely back home. But this also means that Israeli government officials were then able to talk to the passengers about what happened. So what is the response at this point from the Israelis? Well, these really prime minister actually showed up at the airport here. Benjamin Netanyahu met with the first Israeli that noticed the cockpit was open and noticed something was wrong. Yeniv Hayun, and he called him a hero, praised him for being brave. The prime minister also praised the captain. These Israelis are looking into what happened. At this point, the first officer has been taken into custody by the Saudis and investigated by the Saudis. They are cooperating with the Israelis with the Mossad to see if this man had any links to any terror groups and if he actually planned to target Israelis. Absolutely incredible. And like you said, so many acts of heroism, including the captain himself, who, by the way, he's not from Israel, he's not from the Middle East, he's from India. He fought through this attack to open that door and really save everyone on board. Jordan and Miller, they're in Tel Aviv right now. Thank you. Thanks, Brett. Next up on Start here, the district attorney has a lot to say about the original allegations at Cornell. Now we've got the documents. We're back in a bit. The next frontier is to save time when you're hiring. Zippercrooter can help with that. With Zippercrooter's newest feature, you can now see the most interested qualified candidates first, so you save time by meeting the right people faster. It gives those standout candidates a way to stand out from the others, and right now you can try it for free at zippercrooter.com/starthere. With Zippercrooter's powerful matching technology, you will be able to hire the right person faster, and before long, you'll be saving even more time when that great candidate jumps in to start doing the work. Save time and meet great people. candidate sooner with Zippercruder, four out of five employers who post on Zippercruder get a quality candidate within the first day. Try it for free at zippercruder.com/starthere that's zippercruder.com/starthere, meet your match on Zippercruder. Support comes from wise. The smart way to manage the currencies you need around the globe. You've fed up with losing out the hidden fees when you send money abroad with your everyday bank. Choose the smart way. Wise. You can count on the exchange rate you'd usually find on Google. No unwelcome surprises. Plus, ditch that. Where's my money feeling? Most transfers arrive in under 20 seconds. Join millions saving billions on hidden fees. Be smart. Get wise. Download the Wise app now. Teas and sees apply. We've talked all week about what's been happening at Cornell University, an alleged gang rape at a fraternity. A lawsuit, a DA's office now under fire to reopen a case that was closed without any charges filed. But while there are big questions about sexual assault on college campuses, we discussed the national numbers yesterday, this remains about one case, right? The question is, if what happened two years ago was serious enough at the time to mirror it multiple fraternity brothers being kicked out of the frat. Then, expelled from school, why were authorities so quick to determine there was no crime here? Authorities say the answer to that is, the accuser's initial story was different from the one she's telling now. But that's also not uncommon in sexual assault cases. So, what did she say then and how much did that shape everything that has happened since? Over the last 36 hours, ABC News has obtained a number of documents from the early days of this case. They were obtained by ABC's chief investigative correspondent, Erica Tursky, who is back on the Cornell campus this morning. Aaron, let's talk about what campus police and prosecutors were initially told. What was in this initial police report? Jane Doe went to police in November 2024, about three weeks after the incident at the Chi-5 fraternity house. And the investigator prepared a six-page accounting of her statements to campus police. Jane Doe, as she's now known, described going to the fraternity house invited by one of the fraternity brothers and engaging in group sex that lasted hours. Some of it she said she consented to. She also outlined sometimes when she said no. She also explained just how intoxicated she was when she arrived and became more so as the night went on. Okay. And so then there's already the question then about consent, right? We've also obtained text messages from the alleged victim at the time. So I mean, how was she describing this to not just police, but those around her? These messages, Jane Doe, exchanged with the fraternity brother who had initially invited her to the Chi-5 house that night and with whom she engaged in sexual activities and someone that she now accuses in a civil lawsuit of raping her. The text messages show that she appeared to regret that so many people on campus had found out what had gone on. She said it ruined her reputation temporarily. She said that she felt ashamed, but she continued a somewhat seemingly friendly relationship over text message with this man. Then in subsequent days, the tone of the messages appeared to change. The man expressed worry that he was being labeled an "assulter," Jane Doe at first tried to reassure him. I've never mentioned your name, but later said that she was done talking to him because, as one of her messages, said Brad, you lied. Well, so this, I guess, is the question, Aaron. I think in your reporting, you've said only one time, even in her police report, it was the word rape even mentioned, and it wasn't like an outright accusation. And yet, this is also common in sexual assault cases, right, where people do take time sometimes to actually process what happened. They're conflicting accounts even by the victim themselves. So I guess I'm trying to figure out, like, what is supposed to happen here? If somebody comes forward and says this happened to me, they use language that make authorities later say, like, I don't think there's any there there. Is that up to the alleged victim to be clearer? Is it up to authorities to push for more facts, but I'll be it with a super sensitive topic? How is it supposed to work? And I guess, do that happen here? From a legal perspective, Brad, it's up to the authorities to determine whether a rape occurred. The onus is not on the alleged victim to use that specific word. I understand that with sexual abuse and survivors, there is always a period of time that is based on the human being where someone may not understand fully what happened. What the district attorney here in Tompkins County told us was that he made a judgment based on the six-page statement that Jane Doe gave to campus police at the time that she did not describe something that was non-consensual under New York law. If you're voluntary, intoxicated, or under the influence of drugs, such that your judgment is impaired, that does not legally, under the penal law, constitute your inability to consent. Now, remember, he is reopening the investigation. He says he would consider any new evidence as he prepares to put the case before a grand jury. Also, if you're talking about, like, relitigating the case, relitigating this in the court of public opinion seems like a huge part of this as well, right? So, I mean, what is the vibe on campus right now? This campus is reeling, Brad, and students are demanding answers. When you watch the entire campus, it was like in a lot of shock. I just feel just so unsafe around campus. Some student groups are demanding accountability from Cornell administrators. They want to change the way the school handles and responds to sexual assault cases. I believe that she deserves justice, and there must be accountability. New York Governor Kathy Hocal called for an outside review of how Cornell handled the woman's claims saying the whole thing raises serious questions about Cornell's campus culture, and the governor told us Cornell agreed to initiate this outside review. Oh, okay, so that is a new development here in the last 24 hours at Anarchatorsky on campus now in Ithaca, New York. Thank you so much. Thank you, Brad. It's hard to believe. It's already October. It's even harder, perhaps, if you're someone who relies on food assistance from the government. Because this morning, big new changes are going into effect that people on the SNAP program had been dreading for months. This will change who gets benefits and how much they receive. So, let's bring in ABC's Elizabeth Solsey who covers economics. Elizabeth, find us what is SNAP, and I guess what's changing about SNAP? Brad, SNAP is a critical lifeline for tens of millions of American families, most of them low income, to help afford groceries. We're talking about the supplemental nutrition assistance program. Often, in the past, have been called food stamps, but these are benefits of families receive every month to help pay for the cost of food, which, as we know, has been going up. The frontline program that really just cannot be replaced by charitable food assistance. But there is a huge overhaul happening to the SNAP program that's part of the one big beautiful bill act, the President Trump's signature tax and spending law that was passed with entirely Republican support last year, that is really going to change how this program is funded. We've lifted over 600,000 Americans off food stamps, and that's happening rapidly. The biggest change that takes effect today is that states will be paying more of the administrative costs of SNAP while the federal government will be paying less. States are now going to be required to cover 75% of the administrative costs. That's a 25% increase, and this is ultimately going to cost the state's millions of dollars to figure out how they're going to pay for something that previously was funded by the federal government. The White House and Republicans in describing this change say that it's a way to cut federal spending, address some of the waste and fraud that is in these programs by turning this over to the states. I don't think that budgets should be balanced on the backs of people who are trying to survive. But what we are already seeing is some impacts of this, even before the policy has actually been enacted, Brad. So there's the question of who pays for it, and then there's the question of who gets it, right? What are the rules about who is eligible for SNAP that has changed recently, right? Right. So there are also different eligibility requirements, and these are actually already in effect because of the new law. These requirements are stricter for who qualifies for SNAP benefits. The work requirements change, so basically you now have work requirements applying to a wider range of people between the ages of 18 and 64 before that. The age limit was 54, so that means that it's going to be harder for people to qualify by, there are also some other eligibility requirements that have changed paperwork requirements that can make it extremely complicated for people to figure out actually how to even apply for these benefits in the first place. And that combined with kind of states preparing for this shift in administrative cost, Brad, has meant that over the past year since this law was enacted, more than 5 million people are no longer receiving SNAP benefits. That is a huge number of people no longer receiving this aid from the federal government to help buy food that they were getting before. And there are a lot of estimates that that number of people will continue to go up. So what is the actual impact that ends up being? for one of these families, then Elizabeth. - What this means, Brad, is that it's going to be harder for a lot of families to afford food. At a time when grocery prices in the past year, they're up more than 2%, in the past five years, grocery prices are up more than 25%. I mean, that is a huge price increase. - Snap and school benefits are kind of just holding us together. - This is an essential. We're talking about keeping food on the table in a way that a lot of people help afford that. And the numbers here, when you think about what these benefits are, it makes clear how critical this is for families. - With snap benefits, it covers that need, that I need to provide for food on the table with my daughter. - For a family of four, and this is after some adjustments to benefits that also take effect today, you would be getting a maximum of $1,000 a month for groceries. That's per month, that's how much you could get in snap. And that is a lifeline for a lot of these families, but we're not talking about thousands and thousands of dollars. This is a lifeline for a lot of families. - Right, and that's like for an average family of four, or something, which sounds pretty much in line with I think what a lot of Americans would expect. All right, Elizabeth Schildzi, thank you so much. - Thank you, Brad. - Okay, one more quick break. When we come back, it's normal to want to suffer quietly in the loan, but our next guest isn't normal. Thank goodness for that. One last thing is next. - This message is brought to you by avocado mattress. And if healthy, comfortable sleep matters to you, this is one organic brand worth knowing. - When you're shopping for mattresses, you can spend hours reading reviews and scrolling through photos, but the only way to truly know if a mattress is right for you is to feel it for yourself. That's why avocado invites you to come lie down. Every avocado mattress is got certified organic, assembled in our California facility with organic cotton wool and latex. No polyurethane foams, no fiberglass, certified by Made Safe and EWG verified. It's a difference you can feel. So curl up, try any of our avocado mattresses in person at an avocado mattress store or 600 premier retail locations nationwide. Find out which of our five comfort levels is right for you because buying a mattress shouldn't be a guessing game. And there's no one size fits all when it comes to better sleep. Find your comfort. Come lie down at avocado. Visit avocadogreenmatrist.com to find a store near you. That's avocadogreenmatrist.com. Avocadogreenmatrist.com. On October 19th, 2025, the Louvre became the backdrop of something straight out of a heist movie. Now nearly a year out, there are still critical questions to be answered. We're used to following heist in movies from the perspectives of the ever so glamorous and dangerous perpetrators. But when it happens in real life, the lines between good and bad guys aren't so clear. And even less clear is the fate of those French crown jewels. In this series, I'll take you inside the events of that day like you've never heard them before, through the eyes of the people who lived them. I'll follow the investigation into how this could have happened, who could have been behind it, and then I'll join the international hunt for the Louvre jewels. Heist at the Louvre, a new series from ABC Audio. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or your favorite podcast app, or subscribe to 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts to listen ad-free. And one last thing, this was me seeing my colleague, ABC's Will Reeve, for the first time in months. Oh my gosh, Will. Hi. If I seem more distressed here than he is, it's because I'm the one who's just learned what he's been going through this year, a year that started off as exciting until it became something scary. I got married to my amazing wife, Amanda, in January of this year. And we went on a honeymoon, and life was great, and everything was smooth sailing, as one would hope in the first bits of marriage. And then in about mid-April, or early April felt something weird with my testicle. Yeah, he had found a lump. Eventually, at his new wife's urging, he decided he shouldn't ignore it anymore. He sought out a doctor who, after a series of scans and surgeries, said he had an embryonal carcinoma, an aggressive form of disticular cancer. So aggressive, in fact, that it's known to start spreading through the body into the lymph nodes. He said, you're going to need your lymph nodes removed, and it's going to happen soon. And I'm like, hmm, but I'm covering the NBA finals for GMA. Like, I do every year. It's my favorite assignment, and my favorite team, the New York Knicks, are playing. And he's like, I am also a Knicks fan, and you need to get surgery next week. He's like, you don't understand. Whatever you thought was important before today, not as important. Exactly. It was a lesson in forced perspective. That new perspective ended up transforming this from a story of fear into one of inspiration. It's like 6am, 1/10. It's game four. I'm not going to be there. Oh, sorry, I messed up. But let's go to the next anyway. We'll decide to start documenting his journey, which, to me, is incredible. Because side note, Will's father was the actor Christopher Reeve, who was paralyzed when Will was just nine. Eventually, he died, which is 18 months after that. His mother, Dana, also a notable actor, died of lung cancer. If there's anyone who knows how difficult it can be to suffer medical conditions in public, it's Will. But he didn't care. I was raised by my parents in an environment where if one struggles, when made public, may help other people enduring those same struggles, one, it has an obligation to share. My parents were quite open with their health journeys of various kinds. And they made such a difference in so many people's lives. He started videotaping his cancer treatments, his recovery. Today, I am experiencing bone pain, which is actually counterintuitively a good thing. It means a drug that I was given last Saturday is working, it's regenerating my white blood cells from my marrow, but oh my. There are a lot of taboos around his particular cancer, a lot of stigma. For one, no one really wants to talk about testicles. Will said he had to get over that pretty quickly. I think one of the great advances in women's health has been the normalization of talking about breast cancer. And this is kind of the male equivalent. The other taboo is a fear of what happens after treatments. Will had just been married. He was planning on starting a family. One of the first things through his mind was would he ever be able to be a father now? You get told right away, you need to bank sperm. Eventually, he convened a roundtable of other patients. One other thing you forget when you break this taboo of testicular cancer is just how young the average patient is. I had a 19-year-old who has diagnosed at age 14 to represent the youngest cohort to show that this can happen to someone at the worst age it could ever happen. I was like, I don't really know. Is this just my body changing? I wasn't even really thinking about it could be cancer. Then I found another man who was my age. He was 28 when he was diagnosed. He was in medical school training to, I think, be a cardiologist. Went through testicular cancer, changed his discipline to urology so that he could then help other people going through testicular cancer, having been a patient to himself. I am literally telling myself for the third or fourth night in a row that I need to go see a doctor to have my balls checked for cancer. Like, why am I not making that a priority? And then I found a man who was 31 and engaged when he was diagnosed in 2020. He's now 38 married with two kids. And I looked to him as the shining beacon. There is a part of me every single day that looks at my kids, you know. I'm sorry. I can't say it. That looks to my kids and is really grateful. Everyone who goes through testicular cancer who wants to have a family needs to have people within the community to look up to as an example of what is possible for their lives. He says now, after two surgeries and two rounds of chemo, he was able to ring this bell to signify he's cancer free at Sloan Kettering. The same hospital his mother had been treated at 20 years prior. Now, yes, he's back at work. Yes, he plans to start a family with his wife through IVF. We were married 95 days before I was diagnosed. So really an early test of the vow in sickness and in health. Will says he continues to meet people. Strangers who say they have been inspired by how his parents once responded to adversity. It's helped shape their lives. He's now hoping he can convince other men to better track their health and he's already inspired one. [MUSIC PLAYING] Incredible person. I'm just so glad to know you will. Hey, a reminder, we were nominated for several signal awards and we need your help to win the Listeners Choice Award here. So guess what? Our team has made it super easy. In our show notes, we've got a link to the awards. All you got to do, click that on your phone. It'll take you right to the website. You put in your email. You set up a little account, whatever. It's very easy then boom, vote for our show. Try to vote for all the categories our show is nominated for. We do really appreciate it, but we think we've got a real shot of this. I'm Brad Milky. I'll see you tomorrow. [MUSIC PLAYING] It was one thing for there to be a single clown sighting. And then there was a second one. Hundreds of students launched a late-night manhunt. How many more of these are we going to have on October 12th? The room has started to spread around 10. That there were killer clowns the clowns are coming. They were clowns seen in different rural areas We even tried to form a killer clown What's the new Hulu original documentary clown Taneck on October 12 streaming with Hulu and Hulu on Disney plus for Bones subscribers term to apply from the studio that brought you one to vision I was an Avenger, but I'm not a hero anymore On October 14th the vision returns for the final chapter of the groundbreaking trilogy That family wasn't real. You sure about that? I had a father called vision. Oh, is this possible? Don't miss the two episode premiere of Marvel Television's Vision Quest Nothing bonds a family together quite like mortal jeopardy streaming up to 14 only on Disney plus