Yaniv Hayoun had never flown a plane. When a Flydubai jet plunged toward the ground Wednesday, the Israeli grandfather reached for its controls with only a lesson from television to guide him.
The sewage truck driver said he briefly pulled the aircraft’s nose up after helping passengers overpower a co-pilot accused of stabbing the captain aboard Flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
A reserve crew aboard the flight subsequently took control and landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. The incident was initially described as a suspected hijacking, though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later questioned that characterization. The motive remains under investigation.
Hayoun told the Daily Mail that his few seconds at the controls came down to something he remembered from “Air Crash Investigation,” a show he watches without his wife because it makes her nervous about flying.
“There’s a programme called Air Crash Investigation…The images are frightening and they make my wife afraid of flying, so I watch it secretly when she isn’t watching with me.
“I saw on it that when an aircraft is going downward, you have to bring the controls back — pull them backward — to bring the nose level. It really was only for a few seconds. It wasn’t as though I flew the plane.”
Before he reached the controls, Hayoun had to help stop the attacker.
“About an hour before landing, a woman started shouting,” he said. “At the front of the aircraft, a woman started screaming something about stabbing: ‘He’s stabbing him, he’s stabbing him.'”
He ran toward the cockpit, where the screams were coming from. As he approached, the aircraft nosedived.
“It lasted several seconds. I don’t know exactly how many seconds it was, but they say we lost 14,000 or 15,000 feet in less than a minute — the aircraft lost that altitude. It was enormous.”
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Video captured passengers screaming during the descent. One passenger compared the sensation to “riding a rollercoaster.” Another, Zvika Manes, said people were “flying out of their seats” before the aircraft stabilized.
The wounded captain managed to unlock the cockpit door, allowing passengers to intervene, according to Israeli officials.
Hayoun said someone was holding the handle when he reached the entrance.
“I opened the door – I pushed the door while he was holding the handle. I pushed it open and went inside. On the floor, right beside the door, was the pilot. He was lying there. He was very seriously injured.”
Inside, Hayoun found the injured captain on the floor and no one seated at the controls.
“There was no pilot in the pilot’s seat. One pilot was lying beside the door, seriously injured but conscious. His eyes were open. Between the two seats are the aircraft’s controls.”
The attacker had his knees on the controls, Hayoun said, “as though trying to interfere with the instruments.”
“He was leaning forward toward the aircraft’s controls. So I grabbed him by the throat,” he said. “I pushed him out toward the exit and started shouting for people to come and help because he was resisting.”
At least three other Israelis rushed to help him restrain the attacker, according to Hayoun.
“We subdued him with blows. We had to stun him, so he took some blows. We tied him up.
“Once he was no longer a threat, we simply stood over him and made sure he couldn’t free himself. He may even have lost consciousness for a few minutes – I don’t know.”
Hayoun then returned to the controls.
“I leaned over the seat, reached forward with my hands and pulled the controls toward me because the aircraft was pointing downward. I pulled the controls back toward me. It was only for a few seconds.”
Photos from the aftermath showed bloodied passengers, including Hayoun wearing a stained white T-shirt.
Speaking after returning safely to Israel, he emphasized that he handled the controls for only a “few seconds” before a trained pilot took over.
But the television habit his family had questioned had suddenly proved useful. His daughter used to ask how watching the documentary series would “ever be useful.”
“Well, this is where it became useful to me,” he said. “What I had seen became useful to me in the only attempt I’ve ever had in my life to survive. It was one shot – one opportunity.”
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[ H/T Trending Politics ]
