‘I grabbed the terrorist’: Flydubai passenger tells Netanyahu how he subdued pilot, helped stabilise plane
An Israeli passenger who helped subdue the pilot aboard a flydubai flight recounted to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday how he entered the cockpit, pulled the man away from the controls and helped stabilise the aircraft after it began nosediving.Yaniv said he and another passenger forced their way into the cockpit, where they found the pilot injured near the door, according to The Times of Israel.“When I went in, I saw the terrorist on the controls, between the two seats. There were no pilots in the seats,” Yaniv told Netanyahu who was at Ben Gurion Airport after the rescue plane returned to Israel.“I grabbed the terrorist, put him in a hold, and first of all pulled him outside,” he said.Asked what the alleged attacker was doing, Yaniv said he appeared to be trying to damage the aircraft’s controls.“He was trying to destroy the controls in order to disable the plane,” he said.Yaniv said he then called on other Israeli passengers to help restrain the man before returning to the cockpit when he realised the aircraft was tilting sharply.“I jumped back in there, grabbed the controls, started pulling the controls,” he recounted, adding that he knew what to do because “I watch Mayday”, referring to the documentary series about aviation accidents.“The plane started leveling out a little more, and then the pilot told me he was taking over from there,” Yaniv said.The flydubai flight, travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv, was diverted to Saudi Arabia and made an emergency landing at Tabuk after an altercation in the cockpit.The rescue flight carrying around 180 passengers, most of them Israelis, later landed at Ben Gurion Airport.The pilot who was reportedly stabbed and seriously wounded in the incident was an Indian national, according to Israeli media reports.Netanyahu described the incident as an “extremely serious security incident” and said the actions of passengers and crew members helped prevent a potentially severe disaster. He also praised those involved, saying he “salutes the heroes” who saved the passengers’ lives.
