Pulled controls all the way back: How passenger fought to regain flydubai control

Yaniv Hayoun told Benjamin Netanyahu how he helped overpower a co-pilot during the flydubai cockpit crisis. The account also highlighted Captain Smit Machchhar's role as a saviour, as investigators continue to examine the motive.Yaniv Hayun, one of the men who helped incapacitate the attacker on the flydubai aircraft bound for Israel from the United Arab Emirates. ( Photo- Reuters)A passenger who helped overpower the co-pilot during the mid-air crisis aboard flydubai flight FZ1073 has recounted the dramatic cockpit struggle to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after returning to Israel.Yaniv Hayoun met Netanyahu after returning to Israel, still wearing the blood-stained clothes he had worn during the incident. Netanyahu hugged him and told him, “This is the honor! You are the hero!”Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has met Yaniv Hayun, the Flydubai passenger that helped restrain a pilot who stabbed a colleague.Netanyahu called the passenger a ‘hero’ during a meeting at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv shortly after the flight landed. pic.twitter.com/XAw68rCLMp— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 30, 2026Hayoun told Netanyahu that the trouble began when the aircraft's lights went out and the cabin pressure changed. He and another passenger, whom he later discovered was an off-duty airline pilot, tried to force open the cockpit door but initially could not.According to Hayoun, Indian Captain Smit Machchhar had collapsed near the cockpit door after being attacked but managed to unlock it before losing consciousness. That allowed Hayoun and other passengers to enter the cockpit. “I entered the cockpit, saw one pilot on the floor and the other over the controls,” Hayoun told Netanyahu.He said he grabbed the co-pilot by the neck and pulled him backwards out of the cockpit. When Netanyahu asked what the co-pilot had been doing with the controls, Hayoun said he believed the pilot was trying to damage or interfere with them. Hayoun then described taking hold of the aircraft's controls as the plane began to level out.“I grabbed hold of the control sticks and pulled them back to level out the plane,” he said.When Netanyahu asked whether he had actually pulled the controls, Hayoun laughed and replied, “Yes, I pulled them all the way back. I watch Air Crash Investigation!”The aircraft eventually levelled out, after which the off-duty pilot took over the controls, Hayoun said. The plane was later diverted to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia, where it landed safely.During the meeting, Netanyahu asked Hayoun how he managed to break into the cockpit. Hayoun responded by invoking the biblical phrase associated with Israel's 2025 Operation Rising Lion, saying, “A people like a lion.” i24 news reported.Netanyahu thanked him and said, “Had the plane reached Israel, who knows what would have happened.”He later told Hayoun, “Without you it could have been another 9/11.”Hayoun responded that, in his view, “that was the goal.”Netanyahu also praised Captain Machchhar, who was stabbed during the confrontation. He said the Indian pilot managed to resist the attack and open the cockpit door, enabling passengers and crew to intervene.Flydubai flight FZ1073 was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv when the cockpit incident occurred. The aircraft issued emergency signals before being diverted to Saudi Arabia. The plane landed safely in Tabuk, and the passengers were later brought back to Israel.The exact motive behind the cockpit attack remains under investigation. Meanwhile, flydubai said on Wednesday that it was suspending flights to and from Israel following an incident involving flight FZ 1073. The airline said the temporary suspension would remain in place while the relevant authorities continue their investigation into the incident and establish all the facts.- Ends