Hijack hero who pulled jet out of death plunge learned how to fly by watching plane documentary and describes how he put 'terrorist' in a headlock

An Israeli grandfather who heroically took control of the plunging flydubai flight on Wednesday has revealed he learned to fly from watching plane documentaries.Yesterday's incident saw the pilot of Flight FZ1073 stab his co-pilot with a knife and try to hijack the flight with the intention of crashing it, according to Israeli officials.A major disaster was narrowly avoided when brave passengers onboard the flight managed to subdue the pilot while taking control of the aircraft, which was plummeting to the ground. Photos from the incident show blood-covered passengers in the aftermath of the attack, after they successfully managed to overpower the knifeman and prevent him from continuing his assault.One of them, a man pictured wearing a blood-stained white T-shirt, has now been identified as Yaniv Hayoun, an Israeli sewage truck driver who played a crucial role in helping to regain control of the aircraft despite having no previous flying experience.Speaking to the Daily Mail, Hayoun recounted the terrifying moment he stepped in, describing how he put the pilot in a headlock and prevented him from interfering with the controls as the jet plunged towards the ground.'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."'Hayoun said he ran towards the cockpit, which is where the woman's screams were coming from, but as he approached, the plane nosedived. Hayoun is seen on the Flydubai aircraft with blood on his shirt after helping to overpower the knifeman Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets at Ben Gurion Airport Yaniv who broke into the cockpit'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.'When he managed to recover from the shock, the grandfather says he got to the door of the cockpit, where someone was holding the handle.'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.''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.'Hayoun recounted how the knifeman had his knees on the plane's controls, '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.'The hero explained that at least three other Israelis rushed to his aid, helping him overpower the pilot who had stabbed his co-pilot.'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.'After the pilot had been subdued, Hayoun quickly returned to the plane's controls, in a desperate attempt to save the aircraft from plummeting to the ground.'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.'Speaking to the Mail after safely returning to Israel, the grandfather explained how he miraculously knew what to do in the terrifying moments.'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.' Israeli passenger Yaniv Hayoun, with blood stains on his shirt arrives at Ben Gurion airportDespite his insistence he only helped for a' few seconds', Hayoun's heroic actions allowed time for one of the off-duty pilots on the plane to step in and take control.'A pilot from the same airline, Flydubai, was there. He came to me — he was in the cockpit — and in English he told me, ‘You can let go. You can leave it. I’m taking over from here."''Otherwise we would have been in trouble. I would have had to land it, and I don’t know how that would have ended.'Hayoun's brave actions didn't end there, however, as he continued to guard the cockpit and help the injured pilot.'I stood at the cockpit door. I said, ‘Nobody gets past here toward the pilot.’ We made that clear to everybody, including the cabin crew. Nobody was getting past us. From that moment, nobody was entering the cockpit.''On one side, beside the cockpit door, was the injured pilot. We were all looking after him. There was an Israeli doctor who treated him, bandaged him and made sure he stayed alive.'For the next hour until the emergency landing, Hayoun and his fellow passengers took care of the wounded man, who has been identified as Indian pilot Smit Machchhar.'We were treating the pilot. We made sure he didn’t fall asleep. He wanted to close his eyes, and we made sure he stayed alert.''I said to the pilot: "Look at me." I told him: "Nobody [will] die today."' Upon arrival at Ben Gurion hours later, Hayoun received a hero's welcome as he walked through the terminal, before meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who hugged him tightly.