“I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold and pulled him out,” Israeli passenger says after dramatic cockpit struggle aboard Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight

by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Chief

(Worthy News) – Israeli passengers are being hailed as heroes after storming the cockpit of a flydubai passenger jet Wednesday and overpowering a co-pilot who Israeli officials say stabbed the captain and apparently attempted to crash the aircraft with 174 people aboard.

Flydubai Flight FZ1073 was traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv when the Boeing 737 suddenly plunged thousands of feet over Saudi Arabia amid a violent struggle inside the cockpit.

Flight-tracking data showed the aircraft dropping roughly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds during the emergency, according to Reuters. The plane eventually diverted to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, where another flydubai flight crew aboard the aircraft managed to land safely.

But passenger accounts emerging after their return to Israel reveal just how close the flight may have come to catastrophe.

Yaniv Hayun, an Israeli passenger who emerged from the ordeal with his white shirt covered in blood, told Ynet that he entered the cockpit and physically confronted the suspected attacker.

“I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold and pulled him out,” Hayun said. “I called the Israelis who were with us, jumped back in and pulled the controls. I started pulling them back.”

Hayun said his previous aviation experience helped him understand what was happening.

“I have an aviation background,” he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after returning to Ben Gurion Airport. “The plane began to level out, and then the pilot told me he was taking control.”

According to Hayun, the suspected attacker was not merely fighting with the captain but appeared to be attempting to disable the aircraft.

“The pilot was trying to destroy the instruments in order to disable the plane,” Hayun said.

Hayun believes the badly wounded captain managed to unlock the reinforced cockpit door before collapsing, giving passengers and crew the opportunity to intervene.

“He was very close to the door, and that made it difficult for us to open it,” Hayun recalled. “My conclusion is that he managed to open it for us before he collapsed.”

Israeli dentist Musaev Shota, another passenger who joined the struggle, told Ynet that he rushed forward after hearing shouting, helped restrain the suspected attacker and then turned his attention to treating the bleeding captain.

The passengers eventually tied the suspect’s hands and legs after he continued resisting.

Reuters reported that the wounded captain was lying bloodied on the cockpit floor but managed to release the cockpit door. Passengers entering the flight deck then encountered the co-pilot striking the aircraft’s controls.

“This is something you do without thinking, just running to save your daughter’s life, your family’s life,” passenger Asaf Rajuan told Reuters after the flight, his forehead still bloodied from the confrontation.

Passenger Lital Shachaf described their survival in explicitly spiritual terms.

“I just can say that it was a miracle,” she told Reuters. “It was awful, crazy, and we thank God that we survived it.”

Netanyahu: ‘All Indications’ Point to Attempt to Crash Plane

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said preliminary information indicated the incident was an attempt to bring down the aircraft.

“This morning there was an extremely serious security incident,” Netanyahu said, noting that nearly all the passengers aboard were Israelis.

As the plane approached Israel, Netanyahu said, “one of the pilots stabbed the other pilot, and all indications show that he tried to crash the plane along with its passengers.”

Netanyahu said a passenger told him the aircraft went into a dive before passengers and crew managed to break into the cockpit.

“He told me that somehow, he managed to break into the cockpit with one of the crew members, and together they managed to stop the pilot while he was attempting to damage the plane’s systems,” Netanyahu said.

Another flight crew member then took control and stabilized the aircraft.

Netanyahu later met Hayun at Ben Gurion Airport and embraced him while the passenger was still wearing his blood-stained shirt.

“I see you and I see a lion — a big hero,” Netanyahu told him, according to Reuters.

Defense Minister Israel Katz went further, describing what happened aboard FZ1073 as a “jihadist terrorist attack attempt.”

“The grave incident on the flydubai plane was a jihadist terrorist attack attempt, which was thwarted only thanks to the bravery of several Israeli passengers who broke into the cockpit, overpowered the terrorist and, with their own hands, restored control of the plane to another flight crew who was present there,” Katz said.

“According to the initial information in our possession, the terrorist had one intention: to crash the plane with all its passengers.”

Saudi authorities detained the suspected attacker and were questioning him, Netanyahu said. Israeli officials identified the co-pilot as an Omani national.

Plane Plunged Thousands of Feet

The violence inside the cockpit produced dramatic movements visible in flight-tracking data.

AP reported that the jet fell from approximately 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet in about a minute before circling near the Jordanian border and eventually diverting to Tabuk.

Reuters reported an even sharper portion of the descent — approximately 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds.

Israeli fighter jets were scrambled amid initial fears that the aircraft had been hijacked.

Remarkably, another pair of flydubai pilots was traveling aboard the aircraft. Once passengers and crew subdued the suspected attacker, the additional flight crew assumed control and brought the damaged aircraft safely to the ground in Saudi Arabia.

Photos following the landing showed significant damage to the plane’s rudder.

All 174 passengers, including 27 children, were later flown from Saudi Arabia to Israel aboard another flydubai aircraft.

Flydubai Urges Caution as Investigation Continues

While Israeli officials have characterized the incident as an attempted terrorist attack, flydubai said the motive has not yet been formally established.

“At this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation,” the airline said.

“We urge all parties to refrain from premature speculation while authorities gather the facts.”

The airline confirmed that an “altercation occurred in the flight deck” and said an on-duty flydubai crew traveling aboard the aircraft secured the plane and safely diverted it to Tabuk.

“All passengers and crew are safe and accounted for,” flydubai said.

The extraordinary episode is now expected to prompt a broader examination of security procedures governing flight crews operating aircraft into Israel, including how a weapon allegedly made its way into the cockpit.

For the Israelis aboard FZ1073, however, those questions came only after a matter of seconds in which ordinary passengers realized that their survival could depend on their willingness to act.

They did — and 174 people came home.

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