The men who intervened to prevent the FlyDubai plane from crashing have still not been identified.

JERUSALEM (AP) – Who are the mystery pilots who intervened to stabilize the FlyDubai flight as it rushed towards disaster?

As of Saturday, three days after uniformed crew members rushed into the cockpit to stabilize the Israel-bound plane carrying 182 people after a steep fall, they still had not been publicly identified. FlyDubai called them only on-duty crew members traveling on the aircraft. It’s unclear why the airline hasn’t said more.

However, a passenger at the front of the plane described the men’s actions in an interview with The Associated Press, giving one of the most detailed accounts of these yet unsung heroes.

“It’s one of the miracles,” said Daniel Schlichter, sitting in the second row.

“It’s not for every flight that they bring two extra pilots. In this case, they brought them because they should have taken the plane back from Tel Aviv to Dubai, and that’s the only reason they were there.” This practice is called “deadheading.”

The two men responded after screaming passengers discovered what was happening in the cockpit. They said the the co-pilot attacked the captain over and over again, and there was blood everywhere. The captainalthough seriously injured, managed to unlock the cockpit door.

After a passenger grabbed the co-pilot and pulled him out, and others fought with the man To subdue him, Schlichter said one of the traveling pilots practically broke through the fray to enter the cockpit and grab the controls.

“He was actually jumping over the guys who were dealing with the terrorist, and he got to the pilot area and started taking over,” Schlichter said. “And then the other guy, the other pilot, joined them and they closed the door because they didn’t want anyone else there.”

Schlichter, like others, wasn’t sure where the two men were from. But whoever came first acted very quickly.

“He truly acted like a hero, took control of the plane and reacted as if he understood exactly what was happening, and I think we owe our lives to him, no less than to the other heroes who took the flight,” Schlichter said.

Once the two men entered the cockpit and closed the door, Schlichter wasn’t sure who had done what inside. It took “quite a few minutes,” perhaps 10 or more, to stabilize the plane after a descent so extreme that part of its rudder was torn off.

A call for help was made as the men frantically searched for a place to land.

Meanwhile, some frightened and suspicious passengers were wondering about them and wondering if they could be trusted.

“After they were able to stabilize the plane, they had no communication with us and I have to tell you that worried me,” Schlichter said.

He worried about an even worse situation: that the men might “divert the plane to Iran, maybe, or I don’t know where, because we’re actually not too far away.”

But after about 45 minutes, he said, the pilots announced they were going to land in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, and that everything would be OK.

With that, Schlichter said, he decided to trust them. And it turned out to be true.