The flydubai plane that narrowly avoided disaster on September 30 had been cruising smoothly at 34,000 feet. In just a few minutes, it lurched into violent climbs and dives, shed some 17,000 feet of altitude, and surged to nearly 600 knots of ground speed ↧ Minutes from disaster: inside flydubai 1073's plunge Israeli officials say air crew and passengers stopped a co-pilot who tried to crash the plane. The data shows how close it came to disaster.