Flydubai passenger describes placing attacker in chokehold after cockpit stabbing

Passengers on a flight to Israel have recounted how they subdued a pilot after he stabbed the opposite pilot and seemed to be attempting to disable the aircraft, whereas others described the “terrifying” second they thought they might die.

Showing in a bloodstained shirt after the ordeal, Yaniv Hayun advised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he realised one thing was improper when the plane out of the blue dropped.

The aircraft, en route from Dubai to Tel Aviv, plummeted 17,000ft (5,200m) in lower than two minutes.

“Somebody screamed… the sunshine went out,” Hayun stated in a video posted by the prime minister on social media.

He and others tried to push open the cockpit door, however the pilot who had been stabbed was very near it, so it was laborious to open. Earlier than he collapsed, the injured pilot managed to open the door.

When Hayun and one other man entered the cockpit, he stated he noticed one pilot down and the attacker on the devices, between the 2 seats, “attempting to destroy the devices with the intention to…disable the aircraft”.

“I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold, and pulled him – before everything – exterior,” Hayun stated.

“We pulled him out; it was a matter of seconds. I referred to as out to the Israeli guys with us on the aircraft – I referred to as them, and two different guys came to visit to me… we pinned [the attacker] all the way down to hold him safe.”