A new interview with Yaniv Hayoun, one of the passengers credited with helping to avert disaster aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073 gave new details about the moment he rushed the cockpit and what happened next.
Hayoun explained that he’d been seated in Row 11 with his wife and daughters, and everything had seemed normal until he heard a woman yelling at the front of the plane that there had been a “stabbing.” It was not clear from what she shouted who had been stabbed — but then the plane turned sharply and started shaking, at which point Hayoun realized that the situation is unfolding in the cockpit.
Yelling at the other passengers to “buckle up,” Hayoun said he rushed toward the cockpit and was almost to the door when the plane nosedived, tossing him around as the dive cut their altitude in by 40% in just 30 seconds.
“I kept trying my hardest to get up off the ground. At some point, I was finally able to, when the plane leveled off a little,” Hayoun said, adding that he believed the plane had stabilized because some automated system had engaged.
At the cockpit, a man who looked like a crew member had his hands on the outside of the door — but Hayoun could not tell if he was trying to get the door opened or hold it closed. ”I get to him, I move him away, he doesn’t resist. I open the cockpit door — it was a little difficult because the pilot was lying down on the floor behind it, the one who was attacked … I went in. The terrorist was crouching with his knees on the instruments between the two pilots’ seats. There was no one in the pilots’ seats. He was hitting the instrument panel, trying to break the equipment.”
Hayoun called back to other Israelis in the aisle to “come help” and attempted to pull the terrorist away fro the controls — and despite the terrorist fighting back, Hayoun was able to get him out of the cockpit. Several others waiting just outside took over and held the attacker.
Returning to the controls, Hayoun realized that the plane was still angled downward and that he could see the ground through the windshield. He grabbed the yoke and pulled upward, bringing up the nose of the aircraft.
Another man, who was not Israeli, came in and said he was a pilot: “Release the controls. I’ll take it.”
Hayoun said he planned to keep a close eye on the pilot because he didn’t know whether he could be trusted — but the still-resisting terrorist had required his attention. The passengers eventually subdued him, tying him up with headphone cables.
After helping to remove the wounded Indian pilot, Smit Machchhar, Hayoun remained in the cockpit with the replacement pilot and one other crew member — largely, he said, to ensure that they were taking action to land the plane safely.
He said that he did not understand much English, but he knew that the pilot was talking to ground control and requesting help for the injured pilot once they land.
Still, he said, other Israelis on the plane guarded the remaining members of the flight crew until they were safely on the ground out of fear that some of them could have been working with the terrorist co-pilot.
Hayoun said that once it was over, he did not worry about boarding another Flydubai flight from Saudi Arabia to Tel Aviv — and he said he would certainly fly again in the future.
“Even being in this situation once was like winning the lottery,” he said, arguing that the odds were against something similar happening on another flight with him onboard.
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