Then two other pilots on board the plane took over and flew it back to land. Why did it have two extra pilots on the plane?
The first officer, an Omani national, was previously fired from Oman Air for extremist views but subsequently hired by FlyDubai. Israel forbids commercial pilots from operating in their territory unless they're nationals of states with diplomatic relations with Israel, so FlyDubai already violated this standing policy by sending this particular pilot on this flight.
It's still unsure if the captain was attacked with the in-cockpit rescue axe that's standard equipment on the 737 MAX and/or by a pocket knife or other sharp or improvised weapon the first officer brought or utilized.
A non-pilot passenger claims to have arrested the descent. It's potentially possible because the deadheading 737 pilots would've most likely been seated near the rear of the cabin. Although, I don't understand how a passenger or anyone could've managed to physically reach the cockpit controls in such a precipitous dive that would've likely pinned occupants to ceiling or floated unseated passengers towards the back of the cabin. Therefore, it's hard to say for certain the non-pilot passenger did what they claimed without corroborating eyewitness testimony. It's possible that the plane partially recovered on its own and the passenger further reduced the rate of descent to a survivable amount.
It's also hard to say when and how the rudder control surface mostly ripped off, whether it was the psycho FO only, FO or captain during their brutal physical altercation, transsonic regime aerodynamic overspeed, or from abrupt input of subsequent person(s) at the controls. The engineering "miracle" is that the aircraft remained structurally sound enough to land, but I anticipate it will require an MRO structural D check and repairs before returning to service.
PS: Some 737 MAX-9 are getting retrofitted with secondary cockpit security doors because there is a problem with locked 737 MAX cockpit primary doors spontaneously opening during a rapid depressurization event. This means terrorists/crazies could intentionally depressurize the cabin to break into the cockpit.
Interestingly enough it’s even mentioned in the wiki now…
Also the pilot triggered the hijack code before the cockpit was rushed.