Passenger lauds ‘heroism’ of Israelis who subdued attacker on board flydubai flight; ‘It felt like, that’s it, it’s over. September 11 is happening again’

A passenger identified as Daniel tells Channel 12 of his experiences on the flydubai plane after the first officer allegedly attacked the captain and attempted to crash the plane.

“Suddenly I heard a struggle. Something like a fight coming from the cockpit,” he says, on the phone from Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk Airport, where the flight eventually landed. “The door was slightly ajar and I saw an attempt to push someone out. Then three Israelis who were sitting behind me came to see what was happening, and the plane suddenly went into a very steep dive, nose down, with a very intense spin.

“From what I understood, a copilot stabbed the captain, and once they subdued the attacker, there were two other pilots on the plane and they took control,” he says. There have been reports off two off-duty pilots taking the reins after the captain had been incapacitated.

“The spinning stopped. It took some — I don’t know, it felt like an eternity, but I think it was two minutes, at least two or three minutes, during which the plane was simply diving and spinning like crazy,” Daniel recounts. “It felt like, that’s it. It’s over. September 11 is happening again.”

Daniel says he “definitely” thought it was a terrorist attack. “I heard the screams during the struggle and saw the blood on the floor from the pilot, who was brought out.”

“Those three Israeli guys are real heroes. It’s hard to explain just how heroic they were,” he says.

But Daniel says it was not clear at all that the danger had passed.

“The focus was on neutralizing the guy, the attacker. I looked outside and saw desert, I couldn’t see anything. I realized Iran was close. Thoughts went through my head that they were hijacking the plane to Iran,” he says.

Daniel says the two other pilots who took control initially did not communicate with the passengers, as they were apparently focused on securing the plane. “The pilots locked themselves in the cockpit, and we had no contact with the pilots. There were also two flight attendants who were completely helpless, from flydubai. They were hysterical, they didn’t really know how to handle the situation.”

He says, “All kinds of thoughts were running through our heads, but the moment we heard the pilot start speaking to the passengers and telling them that they were going to land,” he calmed down.