Flydubai passenger recounts intervention in cockpit: “Everything happened within seconds

Yaniv Hayoun, a passenger on a Flydubai flight, has described how he and other passengers intervened to stop a person suspected of attacking the crew.

During a meeting Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hayoun said he tried to enter the cockpit after realizing that one of the pilots had been injured and was near its door.

When he entered the cockpit, he said, neither pilot was in their seat. The suspect was standing near the control panel and appeared to be trying to interfere with the plane’s controls.

“I called out to some Israelis on board, and two more people came. We held him down,” Hayoun recounted.

He said he then grabbed the suspect by the throat and pulled him out of the cockpit before immediately returning to the plane’s controls.

“I went back, grabbed the controls and started pulling them back,” he said, emphasizing that everything happened within seconds.

Hayoun said he feared a far worse outcome if the plane had entered Israeli airspace out of control.

Asked how he knew what to do with the controls, he jokingly replied that he had been inspired by a television series: “I watch ‘Air Crash Investigation,’ Mr. Prime Minister — really!”

The meeting with Netanyahu covered the passengers’ intervention to stop the suspect and help regain control of the plane.