2026年9月30日，从迪拜飞往特拉维夫的FlyDubai 1073航班上发生的事件，简直就像是我写的惊悚小说中的情节一样。然而，这一切确实发生在沙特阿拉伯的上空，绝非虚构。这件事让我想起了很久以前就听过的一句格言：在大多数情况下，希望并不能成为解决问题的办法；没有人会来救你，你必须依靠自己来保护自己。
The events on FlyDubai Flight 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on 30 September 2026 reads like something out of one of my thrillers. But what occurred in the skies over Saudi Arabia was not fiction, it was real world and highlights an adage I learned long ago and has been repeated in various incarnations across social channels with differing attributions over the years — hope is not a course of action, in most cases, no one is coming to save you, you will need to be your own cavalry.
事实上，我很惊讶这样的事情之前竟然从未发生过——也许是一名精神失常的飞行员或副驾驶杀害了另一名飞行员（这种行为可能是出于自杀动机，或是为了追求所谓的“圣战”）。一些恐怖组织将这种行为称为“istishhadi”（即“圣战行为”）。以色列前总理称赞乘客们的“英勇行为”，因为他们成功阻止了这起潜在的 cockpit 攻击。
That means be prepared. I am actually surprised that this or something like this has not happened previously — an unhinged pilot or co-pilot killing the other, perhaps suicidal, perhaps in search of martyrdom, as what some terrorist organizations call an istishhadi or "martyrdom seeker." FORMER ISRAELI PM HAILS ‘HEROISM’ AFTER PASSENGERS HELP THWART ALLEGED COCKPIT ATTACK With prior planning it is possible for pilots to work together in a "martyrdom operation" that would be much harder to thwart.
如果事先有周密的计划，飞行员完全有可能联手实施这种“圣战行动”，而这样的行动将更难被阻止。也有可能是一名飞行员或副驾驶与坐在头等舱的其他人员勾结，阻止乘客们采取行动；这样一来，驾驶舱里的恐怖分子就有足够的时间杀死所有人，或者再次将这架客机变成攻击特定目标的武器。
Or a single pilot or co-pilot could work with other "muscle" sitting in first class to prevent passengers from doing what they did on September 30, giving the terrorist in the cockpit time to kill them all or once again turn an airliner into a weapon focused on a specific target.
每次坐飞机时，我都会思考这类可能发生的危险情况。我会仔细观察乘客和空乘人员，并在登机时留意飞行员的举止，试图发现任何异常的迹象。我始终记得一位越南战争时期的 Delta 军队特种部队士兵对我说的话：“如果有什么事情看起来不对劲，那很可能就是有问题。”请相信你的直觉——你拥有这种直觉是有原因的。
I think about scenarios like this every time I fly. I look at and evaluate the passengers, the flight attendants, and I always look in on the pilots as I enter the aircraft, searching for anything that does not look or feel right, remembering something a Vietnam-era Project Delta Army Special Forces soldier told me decades ago: "if it doesn’t look right, it’s probably not." Trust your instincts — you have them for a reason.
我还在这些乘客中识别出哪些人可能成为“资产”（即在紧急情况下能够提供帮助的人），以及哪些人可能成为“负担”（即在紧急情况下会带来麻烦的人）。我记录下了他们的物品：鞋子、皮带、衬衫、手表、帽子、包、太阳镜，以及他们的身体特征（比如是否有纹身等），并分析这些信息能告诉我关于他们的哪些信息。在发生突发事件时，哪些物品可能会派上用场，哪些物品反而可能造成阻碍。
I am also identifying assets and liabilities among those groups. Who is a potential asset if things go south? I’m noting shoes, belts, shirts, watches, hats, bags, sunglasses, tattoos, cauliflower ear, and filing away what that tells me about each person. Which of them are likely to help — and which of them may hinder in the event of an incident.
9月30日，沙特阿拉伯的天空仿佛充满了奇迹：在最初的刀袭击中，飞行员史密斯·马奇哈尔（Captain Smit Machchhar）并没有立即失去行动能力，他在倒下之前还设法打开了驾驶舱的门。那些具有行动力、敢于反抗并试图战胜困境的乘客都坐在飞机的前排；其中一名乘客凭借从电视节目中学到的知识，成功拉动了飞机的控制装置。
On September 30, the skies over Saudi Arabia were full of miracles. The pilot, Captain Smit Machchhar, was not immediately incapacitated in the initial knife attack and managed to open the cockpit door before collapsing. Passengers with the instinct to act, fight, and prevail were sitting near the front of the plane, one of the passengers had the wherewithal to pull back on the controls — something he remembered from watching a television show.
那位在副驾驶遭到袭击后仍坚持驾驶飞机的英雄飞行员表示：“我是在为自己的生命而战斗！”令人难以置信的是，飞机上竟然还有其他飞行员能够成功将飞机降落。
HERO FLYDUBAI PILOT SAYS HE WAS 'FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE' AS PLANE PLUNGED AFTER COPILOT ATTACK And there happened to be a pilot or pilots onboard who were able land the plane. Incredible.
如果其中任何一件事没有发生，那么这起事件的结果将会完全不同——那架飞机上的所有人恐怕都会丧生。
If any one of those things had not happened, we would be talking about a very different incident, one in which every single person on that flight is dead.
我在自己的惊悚小说中经常融入历史背景和恐怖主义的相关内容；我还撰写了一系列关于恐怖主义的非虚构作品，其中第二本书专门讲述了1988年12月21日在苏格兰洛克比上空发生的泛美103号航班爆炸事件：那次袭击毫无预警，炸弹在飞机货舱中爆炸，导致259名乘客和机组人员以及地面的11名居民丧生。
I weave a lot of history and the history of terrorism into my thrillers, and I also have a series of non-fiction books on terrorism, the second of which is on Pan Am 103, a plane that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988, killing 259 passengers and crew and 11 residents on the ground. In that attack, there was no warning — a bomb detonated in the cargo hold at 31,000 feet.
泛美航空103号航班的毁灭事件震惊了全世界，并促使航空安全措施发生了重大变革。这一变革在很大程度上得益于受害者家属的压力——他们促使立法者通过了1990年的《航空安全改进法案》。该法案加强了国内和国际航空安全的监管力度，要求在主要机场派驻联邦安全官员，并对所有航空公司的员工进行背景调查。该法案还规定联邦航空管理局（FAA）必须与联邦调查局（FBI）密切合作，加强对海外机场的监管，并改进恐怖威胁信息的传递机制。
The destruction of Pan Am 103 horrified the world — and led to important changes in airline security, thanks in large part to pressure from victims’ families who pushed lawmakers to pass the Aviation Security Improvement Act of 1990. That legislation heightened the focus on domestic and international security, including placing federal security managers at major airports and requiring background checks on all air carrier workers. The law demanded the FAA work in tandem with the FBI, expanded scrutiny of overseas airports, and improved the flow of terrorist threat information.
9·11事件后，美国加强了航空安全措施。然而，恐怖威胁却开始以更加隐蔽的形式出现。最近发生的“FlyDubai”事件也应促使航空安全措施再次得到改进，尤其是加强对飞行员的审查。评估飞行员的资格和驾驶能力固然重要，但他们的背景、社会关系以及心理稳定性同样至关重要。
AMERICA BUILT A FORTRESS AFTER 9/11. THEN THE THREAT STARTED HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT The recent FlyDubai event should lead to changes as well, namely enhanced pilot screenings. It is not just about qualifications and your ability to fly a plane — it’s about your background, associations, and your mental stability.
例如，如果背景调查发现某人每月并未将资金存入自己的401(k)退休计划账户，而是将资金转给了真主党或资助恐怖组织的慈善机构，这显然是一个危险信号——这样的人根本不应该成为飞行员，更不应该驾驶满载以色列乘客的飞机前往特拉维夫。
If, for example, a background check finds that instead of funding your 401(k) each month, you are diverting funds to Hezbollah or a charity funding terrorist organizations — an obvious red flag — you should not be a pilot and certainly should not be flying a plane full of Israelis into Tel Aviv.
对大多数人来说，这些道理都是显而易见的，但如今似乎缺乏这种基本的常识。
This is common sense to most, but common sense seems to be in limited supply these days.
2001年9·11事件之前的劫机事件与针对航空公司的恐怖袭击方式有所不同。在20世纪70年代和80年代，劫机事件通常会导致乘客被交换成囚犯或索要赎金；有时甚至会杀害乘客以示威胁。
The model for hijackings and the use of terror focused on airlines was different before September 11, 2001. Typically, in the 1970s and 1980s, planes were hijacked and the passengers were exchanged for prisoners or ransomed — sometimes a passenger or passengers were killed to make a point.
参议员麦科米克（SEN McCORMICK）指出：“93号航班上的那些英勇乘客向美国展示了如何团结一致应对危机。”从安全角度来看，乘客应选择靠窗的座位，避免站在过道处，以免被恐怖分子袭击或抓住；他们需要能够观察周围情况，等待时机，然后在适当的时候采取行动。
SEN MCCORMICK: THE HEROIC PASSENGERS OF FLIGHT 93 SHOWED AMERICA HOW TO STAND UNITED From a tactical security standpoint that meant that you would want a window seat so you were not in the aisle where you could be struck and injured or grabbed by a terrorist — you wanted to be able to survey the situation, bide your time, and act when appropriate.
2001年9月11日，这一模式发生了转变——飞机和乘客不再被劫持以达成政治目的或索取赎金，而是被当作武器使用。恐怖分子的这一手段变化意味着，一旦发生劫机事件，保护者必须迅速采取行动。他们从靠窗座位挪到过道座位，以便处于能够及时察觉威胁并果断采取行动的有利位置。这里所说的“保护者”并非指军人或执法人员，而是指普通民众。我指的是那些没有丧失战斗意志、也没有将自己的安全完全寄托于不会前来救援的政府或外部机构的人。
On September 11, 2001, that paradigm shifted — planes and passengers were not being hijacked to bring about a political end or for a ransom, they were being turned into weapons. That adaptation by terrorists meant protectors needed to act quickly in the event of a hijacking. They moved from window seats to aisle seats to be in an advantageous position to recognize the threat and take immediate decisive action. And by "protectors" I do not mean military or law enforcement, I mean citizens. I am referring to those who have not suppressed the will to fight and have not outsourced their protection to a government or outside entity who is not coming to save them.
保护那些无力自保的人，是我们作为公民、作为丈夫、作为父亲的责任。迪拜航空事件正是这一责任与“战士心态”的生动例证——从飞行员到乘客，所有人都英勇行动，最终化险为夷。
Protecting those who cannot protect themselves is our responsibility as citizens, as husbands, as fathers. The FlyDubai incident is an example of that duty and of the warrior mindset — from the pilot to the passengers who all acted heroically to save the day.
约翰·博伊德上校提出了所谓的“OODA循环”，即观察、判断、决策、行动。在战斗中，通常情况下，谁能比对手更快地完成这一循环，或者能在对方执行循环的过程中打乱其节奏，谁就能取得胜利。迪拜航空航班上的飞行员与乘客正是如此。他们挺身而出，激发了深植于每个人基因中的求生与保护他人的本能，最终取得了胜利。
Col. John Boyd developed something called the OODA Loop — Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. In combat, in most cases, whoever does that faster than their opponent — or who can disrupt their enemy in the middle of their loop — will be victorious. That is what the pilot and passengers did on the FlyDubai flight. They stepped up and tapped into that primal urge to live and to protect that is in all of our DNA — and they prevailed.
敌人也会从中吸取教训，并在2026年9月30日做出相应调整。
The enemy will learn and adapt to September 30, 2026.
下次，可能两名飞行员都会被控制，也可能其中一人被另一人制服，再与若干乘客联手阻止他人进入驾驶舱。我们也必须做出相应调整，确保那些患有精神疾病、与恐怖组织有关联或为其提供资金的人无法成为我们赖以信任的飞行员。
Next time it might be both pilots or it might be one incapacitating the other, working in conjunction with a passenger or passengers who will block access to the cockpit. We must adapt as well to ensure those with mental disorders or associations with terrorist organizations or those who fund them are kept from the ranks of the aviators we all trust with our lives.
正如约翰·斯坦贝克在《亚瑟王及其英勇骑士的事迹》中所写：“‘现在，我要定下规矩，你们要一字不漏地记住。每个字都需铭记于心。这就是规矩：战斗的目的就是取胜。一味防守绝无胜算可言。剑比盾更重要，而技巧又比二者都重要。最终制胜的武器是头脑，其余皆为辅助。’”请谨记：希望本身并不能成为行动的依据。
As John Steinbeck writes in The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights, "‘Now — I will lay down the law, and you will learn it word by word, and every word must be edged with fire. This is the law. The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no possible victory in defense. The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either.
大多数情况下，没有人会来救你。你的头脑才是最强大的武器。唯有依靠它，再加上战斗的意志，你才能拯救自己与挚爱之人——在这种情况下，则是整架飞机上所有无辜的乘客。做好准备吧。
The final weapon is the brain, all else is supplementary.’" Remember — hope is not a course of action. In most cases, no one is coming to save you. Your mind is the ultimate weapon, and you will need it, coupled with the will to fight, to save yourself and your loved ones, and in this case, an entire plane full of innocent people. Be prepared.