Passenger Who Subdued Knife Attacker in Cockpit and Grabbed Controls: 'Did What I Saw on TV'

One of the passengers who narrowly thwarted an intentional crash attempt on a passenger plane heading to Israel has revealed that he was able to handle the control yoke amid the chaos after rushing into the cockpit thanks to "watching a TV series about aviation accidents."

According to CNN on the 30th (local time), Yaniv Hayun, a passenger aboard the flydubai flight from Dubai carrying about 180 passengers, recounted the tense moments when passengers banded together to subdue the suspect.

He said that it was initially difficult to open the cockpit door at the time of the incident.

This was because the stabbed pilot was leaning against the door.

When he managed to open the door and go inside, no one was piloting the plane.

"There was no pilot in the cockpit," Hayun said. "One was collapsed on the floor and the other was on top of the cockpit panel."

He immediately asked for help from other passengers in the cabin.

"I shouted to other people in the cabin, and two people came to help," he explained, adding that they choked the suspect to subdue him and dragged him out of the cockpit.

After clearing the obstacles, Hayun said, "I went back into the cockpit, grabbed the control yoke, and pulled it back," noting that everything happened in just a few seconds.

When asked how he knew he had to pull the control yoke back, he replied, "I watched Air Crash Investigation! Seriously!"

Air Crash Investigation, known in South Korea as '항공사고수사대', is a program that recreates real aviation accidents based on black boxes and communication records.

Shota Musaev, a dentist who treated the injured on board at the time, stated that when he rushed to the cockpit, the suspect was on top of the pilot collapsed on the floor and stabbing him with a knife.

Explaining the desperate situation at the time, he said, "The pilot's entire body was covered in slash wounds and his hands were practically split in two."


According to The New York Times (NYT), after dragging the suspect out, Musaev joined forces with another passenger to tie up the suspect with headphone cable ties and treated the injured pilot inside the cabin.

Another passenger, Asaf Razuan, told the NYT that he and about five other passengers helped subdue the suspect.

"We subdued him very quickly and there was no real fight," he said. "We acted on instinct."

He recalled, "What I feared most was not knowing where we would land. There was nothing visible below the plane except the desert."

The flydubai passenger plane heading to Tel Aviv diverted to Saudi Arabia and made an emergency landing following the in-flight knife rampage.

According to U.S. broadcaster CBS, aside from the pilot, co-pilot, and two flight attendants, no passengers were injured.

flydubai confirmed that the incident occurred due to a conflict between the pilots.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.