"I Just Pulled The Control Column": The Amazing Story Of The Rescue Of A Plane Flying To Tel Aviv
4- 1.10.2026, 13:48
- 3,062
Yaniv Hayun subdued the pilot, who had stabbed the flight captain.
An Israeli passenger on a flight flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv, described how he managed to subdue the co-pilot after the latter stabbed the captain with a knife and apparently attempted to crash the Boeing 737 Max 8. Other people on board described the “terrifying” moments when they were already preparing to die, according to BBC.
A passenger on Flydubai flight FZ1073 named Yaniv Hayun met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the backup flight landed in Tel Aviv. He was still wearing a bloodstained T-shirt.
Israeli authorities believe the incident was an attempted jihadist attack. The investigation into the incident is ongoing, and no official statements regarding the suspect’s motives have been made yet.
However, Flydubai announced that it is suspending flights to Tel Aviv pending the investigation.
After Hayun subdued the attacker, the plane was stabilized, and two other pilots—who were on board as passengers—performed an emergency landing in the city of Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia.
“There was no one in the pilot’s seats”
Hayun told the prime minister that he suspected something was wrong when the plane suddenly began losing altitude and descended 5,200 meters in less than two minutes.
“Someone started screaming, and the lights went out,” says Yaniv Hayun in a video released by the Israeli prime minister.
After that, he and other passengers tried to open the cockpit door, but it proved to be a difficult task.
“The pilot, who had been stabbed, was just very close to the door, so it was hard for us to open it,” Hayun said.
But, according to him, the wounded pilot managed to open the door before losing consciousness.
“When I went in, I saw the attacker at the instrument panel, between the two seats… there was no one in the pilot’s seats. One was lying on the floor, the other was at the instrument panel. Another guy came in [to the cockpit] with me. I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold, and dragged him—first and foremost—outside.”
According to him, the attacker “tried to smash the instruments to disable the plane.”
Yaniv said he called out to the Israelis who were on the plane, and together they “pinned the attacker to the floor so he couldn’t resist.”
Yaniv also explained that he “pulled on the [airplane’s] control column.”
“Did you pull on the control column?” Netanyahu asked again. “I watch the show ‘Air Crash Investigations,’ Mr. Prime Minister,” Yaniv replied. “The plane began to level off, and then the pilot [presumably one of the relief pilots who were flying as passengers on the plane—BBC] told me he would take control from there.”
Netanyahu called Hayun a “hero” and asked how he’d managed to do it. “We’re a nation of lions, aren’t we?” the passenger replied.
Netanyahu replied that he saw a “great hero” standing before him, and, pointing to a bloodstain on the T-shirt, asked, “Wow, is that from him?” to which the passenger replied: “Yes, that’s from him.” “What you did is simply incredible,” Netanyahu said.
“It feels like I’ve been through hell”
Another passenger, Zvika Meness, told Israeli public broadcaster Kan that he helped subdue the attacker, while others “helped tie him up using his own plastic zip ties and headphone cords.”
“Another pilot who was in the passenger cabin replaced the co-pilot, so they were able to land the plane,” the man added.
Later, the passengers on the Flydubai flight were transported to Tel Aviv on a backup plane. At the airport Ben-Gurion Airport, they were greeted by a large crowd waving Israeli flags, who welcomed them with music, dancing, and singing.
“Thank God, I’m alive,” one of the passengers, Chaim Lazarovich, told reporters. “The most terrifying moment during that flight was when the pilot lost control.”
An 18-year-old passenger, Oran Cohen, described the experience as “a very difficult moment.” “It may have only been five minutes, but it felt like I’d been through hell. I heard my brother, who was sitting behind me, start screaming that we were all going to die,” he added.
An Israeli ambulance service employee later told the BBC that several people on board “were very shaken and crying as they exited the plane.”
The captain, an Indian citizen Smith Machchar, who suffered stab wounds, was taken to a hospital but is in stable condition, according to the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia.
The attacker has been arrested and is being questioned by Saudi authorities.
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