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 Tali Manes’s screams about a stabbing and was hurled to the ground of the aircraft as it plunged and shook violently.

“At some stage I was able to get up when the plane balanced out a little,” Yaniv Hayun recalls, saying he understands that the plane had some kind of automatic stabilizing technology. “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 [two empty] 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 reiterates that the copilot, immobilized, shouted in English, “Kill me.”

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,” he says, one of the off-duty pilots on board took the controls.

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

Hayun says he stayed in the cockpit for some time, and a second off-duty pilot arrived at the door. The pilot at the controls indicated that it was safe to let him enter, and he took the second seat. Hayun says he made sure that the two were indeed flying the plane responsibly, and were communicating to ground authorities and informing them that there were injured people aboard.

He also says that the passengers were wary of 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.

Asked how he was able to act with such bravery, and whether this had something to do with his army service, Hayun, who is extremely good-humored and likable, says, “I was the closest to the flames [in the army]: In the kitchen.” Prompted, “You were an army cook?,” he demurs: “I would distribute the food.”

He says he’ll certainly fly again, but is not sure he’ll fly flydubai again. He also says somebody has offered to give him private flying lessons.

Asked when he’ll go back to work, Hayun says he’d like to on Sunday but his truck won’t start. “I swear it’s true,” he says, and then claims he tried to pull the steering wheel rather than turn it when he got into it on his return home. “When I see something circular [for steering], I’m not used to it,” he jokes.

Asked why he has a truck at all, he explains, “It’s a sewage truck.”

“I’m not an ordinary plumber, I’m a high-class plumber,” he laughs.