By Oxford Reporters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met one of the passengers who helped subdue an attacker during the dramatic cockpit struggle aboard a Flydubai flight that was forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
The meeting with the passenger, identified by Israeli media as Yaniv Hayun, took place Wednesday evening at Ben-Gurion International Airport after the 174 passengers on Flydubai Flight FZ1073, including 27 children, returned to Israel aboard a replacement aircraft.
The development comes hours after the flight, travelling from Dubai to Israel, was diverted to Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia following a violent incident inside the cockpit as the aircraft approached Israel.
Photos released by the Prime Minister’s Office showed Netanyahu embracing Yaniv, who was still wearing a blood-stained white Skechers T-shirt believed to have been stained during the struggle inside the cockpit.
According to Israeli officials, one of the pilots was stabbed during the incident, while the attacker allegedly attempted to interfere with the aircraft’s controls.
Recounting the ordeal to Netanyahu, Yaniv said he and another passenger forced their way into the cockpit and found the injured pilot near the door.
“When I went in, I saw the terrorist on the controls, between the two seats. There were no pilots in the seats,” Yaniv said, according to the account released after the meeting.
He said he grabbed the suspect, restrained him and pulled him away from the controls before calling on other passengers to assist.
Yaniv also said the aircraft subsequently began to plunge, prompting him to return to the cockpit and take hold of the controls until the pilot was able to resume command of the aircraft.
He attributed his ability to respond to what he had learned from watching Mayday, a documentary series about aviation accidents.
“The plane started leveling out a little more, and then the pilot told me he was taking over from there,” he told Netanyahu.
Other passengers also reportedly helped restrain the suspect using cables from multimedia headphones, while a doctor travelling on the aircraft assisted the injured captain.
The aircraft, operated by Indian Captain Smit Machchhar, eventually landed safely in Tabuk, where passengers remained for several hours before a replacement Flydubai aircraft was dispatched to take them back to Israel.
Netanyahu praised the passengers for their actions and met returning Israelis at Ben-Gurion Airport following the ordeal.
The Prime Minister’s Office released photographs of the meeting taken by government photographer Kobi Gideon.
The incident remains under investigation, with authorities expected to establish the circumstances surrounding the cockpit confrontation and the actions that led to the emergency diversion.
