Israeli Who Helped Subdue Attacker: “We Tied Him Up With an Earphone Cord”

The 174 passengers on the Flydubai flight, whose lives were saved this morning (Wednesday) from an aerial terror attack, landed this evening at Ben Gurion Airport on a direct flight from Saudi Arabia, where they had waited for several hours until the Emirati airline sent them a rescue plane. MDA teams examined all the passengers, and one of them was evacuated to Shamir–Assaf Harofeh Hospital for treatment of injuries to his body. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at Ben Gurion Airport and spoke with some of those who returned.

Tzvika Mans was one of the four people who neutralized the terrorist, the Omani co-pilot. In a conversation with reporters, Mans said: “We began to understand that something was wrong when the plane began to lose altitude. My wife went to the bathroom with our daughter and heard shouting and strange noises from the cockpit.”

Mans said that his wife approached a crew member about what was happening in the cockpit, and then the pilot who had been stabbed managed to open the cockpit door and the scene was revealed before his eyes. Together with two others, a struggle began with the stabber. “We fought with him for about twenty minutes. In the meantime, one of us ran to the controls and began stabilizing the plane, which was diving downward. We took the attacker outside, and a pilot who was on the plane entered the cockpit and another pilot joined afterward. There was a lot of blood; the plane was diving quickly, as you see in horror movies, screaming. It was a difficult event until the pilot stabilized the plane.”

He described the co-pilot’s attempt to crash the plane: “The aircraft was at a dangerous angle. He was deliberately steering it toward the ground, and people were being thrown around as they screamed. Later we tied him up and neutralized him with an earphone cable; it took quite a bit of physical violence. He is a strong man; he was probably on adrenaline. A doctor and a nurse who were on the flight stabilized the pilot who had been stabbed all over his body.”

Musayev Shota, a dentist who was on the plane, together with three other Israelis, attacked the stabbing co-pilot and saved the life of the Indian captain. Shota said: “The pilot was very badly wounded, with very heavy bleeding from the head and hands. He was in very serious condition. I was the only doctor on the plane. I managed to stop the bleeding completely. His condition was fairly stable; at the last moment it deteriorated a little. Exactly when we landed.

“We were several heroic people. We took control of the terrorist and tied him up, and of course it was tough, but we succeeded. The pilot communicated with us; he told us that he (the co-pilot) stabbed him and that he is 39 with two children. He stabbed him and cursed, and of course, the whole time he was lying on the floor. At a time like that you don’t think, you just act. There were four of us here who took control of the entire situation, and if not for that, we would not be talking to you.”

Yaniv Hayon, the first person to enter the cockpit and fight the terrorist, was also the one who pulled the plane’s controls and pulled it upward. In a conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said:

“We pushed the door. The pilot who had been stabbed was right next to the door, so it was very difficult for us to open it, but we succeeded.”

“When I entered, I saw the attacker on the instruments, between the seats. There were no pilots in the seats; one was down below, one was on the instruments, and another person came in with me. I grabbed the attacker, I didn’t choke him, and first of all I pulled him outside.”

When asked by the prime minister what exactly the attacker was doing at the entrance to the cockpit, the passenger replied: “He was trying to destroy the instruments in order to disable the plane. We took him outside, it was a matter of seconds. The plane was already nose-down.”

“I called the Israeli guys who were with us on the plane, and two more guys came over to me. I told them that we had pinned him down, and I immediately jumped back into the cockpit,” Yaniv recalled. “I started pulling the controls backward. Luckily, I watched ‘Air Crash Investigation.’ The plane started to level out a little more, and then the pilot who entered told me that he was taking control from here.”