Plumber says he seized flydubai copilot by the neck to stop him from smashing plane console

The plumber who prevented flydubai Flight 1073 from nosediving after the Omani copilot attacked the captain gives a blow-by-blow account to Channel 12 news of the terror attack, explaining how he rushed to the cockpit after first hearing screams about a stabbing and was hurled to the ground of the aircraft as it shook violently.

“At some stage I was able to get up when the plane balanced out a little,” Yaniv Hayun recalls. “Then I went to the door [of the cockpit]. A crew member was standing there, apparently a pilot, as he had on a white shirt… I moved him and opened the door. He didn’t resist. It was a little difficult [to open] because the Indian pilot was lying on the door. The terrorist was bent over with his knees on the controls between the pilot seats in the cockpit and was trying to break the equipment.”

Hayun says that he then grabbed the copilot by the neck and moved him aside, before other Israelis managed to tie him up.

He adds that after shoving the terrorist aside, he could see through the cockpit window that the plane was headed toward the ground, though “not in a very steep direction,” before he grabbed the controls to help stabilize the aircraft. A few seconds later, one of the off-duty pilots on board took the wheel, according to Hayun.

“I went back to the terrorist. A little later we beat him so he wouldn’t resist any longer,” Hayun adds.

He also says that the passengers were wary of the crew members after the incident, not knowing whether they were linked to the attacker, and kept a close eye on them for the remainder of the flight.