Israeli who helped subdue flydubai attacker says headphones were used to tie him up

Tzvika Manes, who was one of three Israelis who subdued the flydubai copilot who allegedly tried to hijack and crash a plane full of Israelis, recalls the dramatic incident earlier today in an interview with Channel 12.

Manes says his wife had been accompanying his young daughter to the bathroom at the front of the plane when she heard screams and a struggle taking place in the cockpit.

Manes’s wife then got the attention of a flydubai flight attendant and told them to go into the cockpit to check what was going on.

At this point, the pilot fell out of the cockpit door as his copilot was stabbing him, Manes says.

The plane began to sink dramatically toward the ground and passengers “went flying.”

Manes says he pulled his daughter out of the bathroom before heading to engage the attacker.

Two other Israeli passengers joined him, with one of them, Yaniv Hayun, managing to take hold of the controls and pull the plane back upward.

It took roughly 20-25 minutes to subdue the attacker, with the three Israelis using corded headphones to tie him up.

A doctor on board separately helped stabilize the wounded pilot.

Manes calls the incident a “horror film,” saying that there were moments when he thought he would not come out alive.

He recalls his daughters screaming “We don’t want to die,” as the plane nosedived — “something traumatic for any father to hear.

“It was a very difficult scenario… but because we’re Israelis, we responded quickly,” he tells Channel 12.