Passengers who helped stop a Flydubai pilot from crashing their plane on Wednesday are being hailed as heroes.
“I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold, and pulled him out [of the cockpit],” Yaniv Hayun, a passenger on the plane, told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in front of reporters at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
In the interview, which Business Insider translated from Hebrew, Hayun added that there were no pilots in the cockpit, so he jumped in and pulled back on the yoke to level the plane out, saying he had some aviation knowledge and that the Canadian TV show Mayday helped him know what to do.
He said several passengers and crew members also helped stop the attack, and other pilots on board further stabilized the jet and landed it.
Netanyahu’s comments came after an attempted hijacking on a Flydubai Boeing 737 Max from Dubai to Tel Aviv. He said one of the pilots had been arrested after stabbing his fellow pilot and attempting to crash the plane.
“I salute these heroes, who displayed exceptional resourcefulness and courage,” Netanyahu said in an earlier statement on Wednesday. “They saved many lives. They prevented a huge disaster.”
President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon that he’d spoken with Netanyahu about the flight and the passengers’ actions.
“I think it’s the most amazing story,” Trump said.
The airline said on Wednesday evening that it would suspend all flights to and from Israel while an investigation into what happened is ongoing.
Trump later praised Boeing in a Truth Social post, congratulating the planemaker for building a plane “that was able to withstand G-forces and strain far beyond what it was designed and expected to do.”
He added: “It is about time that The Boeing Company, which builds, by far, the finest commercial airliners in the sky, was given credit for this airplane’s incredible ‘genius!'”
The plane fell 17,000 feet before stabilizing
Netanyahu has since identified the pilot stabbed during the altercation as Captain Smit Machchhar, calling him a “true hero.”
“Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster,” Netanyahu said on X. “He saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals. I wish Captain Machchhar a speedy and full recovery.”
Around two hours into its journey, the jet dropped from a cruising altitude of 34,000 feet to 17,000 feet above sea level in just two minutes, flight-tracking data showed.
Ten minutes later, the airplane squawked 7700, indicating a general emergency. It then changed the code to 7500, which indicates “unlawful interference” with the flight, and is the code used by pilots to alert authorities of attempted hijackings.
A Flydubai spokesperson said in a statement that “an altercation occurred in the flight deck.”
“The aircraft was successfully secured by on-duty Flydubai crew traveling on the flight,” they added. “All passengers and crew are safe and accounted for.”
Yasmin Abukasis, who said her daughter was on the flight, spoke to reporters at Ben Gurion Airport and told Reuters that her daughter said someone “tried to kill the pilot.”
“It’s very hard to explain what’s happened, but it was a big stress,” she added in an interview with the BBC.
The flight, which took off from Dubai just after 7 a.m. local time, was scheduled to land at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport about three hours later.
After the incident, it diverted to Tabuk, a city in northern Saudi Arabia, about 270 miles from Tel Aviv. Flydubai said it sent two replacement aircraft to bring the passengers and crew back from Tabuk.
Cluster2, which operates Tabuk’s airport, said in a statement that both pilots were injured and taken to the hospital, but did not provide details on the nature of their injuries.
Netanyahu also said he had instructed security agencies to prepare for other potential threats.
“At this early stage, the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown and remain subject to a formal investigation,” the Flydubai spokesperson said.
“We urge all parties to refrain from premature speculation while authorities gather the facts.”