“I Saw My Wife and Children and Realized I Have To Do Something”

Yaniv Hayoun was on the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv. Neria Kraus: Hayoun was one of the people who stormed the cockpit. “I saw my wife and children and realized I have to do something,” he told me. Hayoun, who works in maintenance and has no background in security, had a split-second decision to make. He told me that he felt compelled to help save his family’s lives, and those of the rest of the passengers on the plane…. Hayoun said he saw the entire scene unfold in real time. “There was complete chaos. One of the pilots stabbed another pilot. He tried to crash us. When it leveled out a little, just a little, we managed to get back up. I managed to open the cockpit door with the help of another crewmember. We physically fought with the co-pilot; he was going wild. I put him in a choke hold, took control of him, and dragged him out of the cockpit,” he told me. “Then I called for other Israelis to help restrain him.” Hayoun then returned to the cockpit. “I went back to the controls and pulled back on the yoke, because there was no one left in the cockpit,” he said. I asked him how he had known what to do. “I had seen Air Crash Investigation on TV,” he told me, laughing. “I pulled back on the controls, and then another pilot came in and said he was taking control of the aircraft” (Free Press).

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Israeli hero Yaniv Hayoun returned home in a bloodstained shirt after helping stop the suspected terror attack aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv. Meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he recounted charging into the cockpit, putting the attacking co-pilot in a chokehold and dragging him away from the controls as fellow passengers helped restrain him.

Hayoun then rushed back into the cockpit and pulled the controls back as the aircraft plunged. In his account, the plane began to level out before an off-duty pilot took over. Asked how he knew what to do, he credited watching “Air Crash Investigation.” At least three other Israeli passengers helped subdue the attacker and treat the wounded captain, while two additional pilots brought the aircraft safely down in Saudi Arabia.

The wounded captain’s actions allowed passengers to enter the cockpit, and their intervention helped save 174 passengers, including 27 children. Hayoun deserves recognition alongside everyone who fought to save them.