Screams and unusual noises coming from the cockpit were the first indication that something was seriously wrong aboard the Flydubai flight. Within minutes, the situation escalated into a violent struggle: one pilot was stabbed, the aircraft plunged sharply, and three passengers rushed to help overpower the alleged attacker.
Tzvika Manes, CEO of Bank Leumi’s underwriting company Barak Leumi and one of the passengers involved in subduing the pilot, has now described the dramatic sequence of events - including how the passengers ultimately used the cables from the in-flight entertainment headphones to restrain him.
The first warning came when Manes’ wife accompanied their young daughter to the restroom near the cockpit.
“My youngest daughter was in the bathroom, and my wife went with her. She heard shouting and strange noises coming from the cockpit," Manes recalled.
His wife alerted a crew member outside the cockpit that something appeared to be happening inside. Once the cockpit door was opened, the full scale of the incident became apparent.
“He opened the door and began struggling with the attacker. We immediately jumped in and pulled him out," Manes said. A pilot then entered the cockpit, followed later by another pilot.
At the same time, the aircraft itself was rapidly losing stability. Manes described scenes of blood, screaming, and a sudden descent as the struggle continued.
“We lost our angle. He was really trying to direct the aircraft toward the ground. People were being thrown around, and there were screams," Manes said.
The passengers then faced another challenge: physically restraining the pilot they had pulled from the cockpit. According to Manes, overpowering him required considerable force.
“We eventually tied him up and neutralized him. It took quite a lot of physical force. He is a strong man; he was probably running on adrenaline."
With no conventional restraints immediately available, the passengers improvised. Manes said they used cables from the multimedia headphones distributed aboard the flight to tie the pilot up.
While the passengers restrained him, attention turned to the pilot who had been stabbed. According to Manes, a doctor and a nurse who were among the passengers treated the wounded pilot and stabilized him.
“A doctor and a nurse who were on the flight stabilized the pilot, who had been stabbed all over his body," he said.
Manes said the wounded pilot’s decision to open the cockpit door was crucial, allowing the passengers to intervene. Another flight crew member subsequently took control of the aircraft and stabilized it.
In another account of the incident, Manes described the moment his wife alerted the crew member outside the cockpit.
“Suddenly she heard shouting, screaming and noise from the cockpit. She told the pilot who was outside, ‘Something is happening - get in, get in.’"
The door opened, and three passengers moved in.
“He opened it, and then the three of us jumped in. We neutralized him, the attacker, and a doctor helped the captain and stabilized him," Manes said.
Another pilot then assumed control of the aircraft while Manes and two other passengers restrained the alleged attacker.
“I’m covered in blood. It was insane," Manes recalled.
According to Manes, the reserve pilot who stepped in to assist was a citizen of Fiji, while the wounded pilot was from India and the pilot accused of carrying out the stabbing was from Oman.
Other passengers documented the aftermath in videos posted on social media. In one clip, an Israeli passenger who had helped subdue the alleged attacker could be seen with blood on his face as the aircraft prepared to land in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
“We are in the middle of a plane hijacking. At the moment, we have taken control of the attackers and we are about to land," he said. “Anyone who can hear me, we need help. We are landing in Tabuk, apparently somewhere in Saudi Arabia, an unfamiliar and unknown area. Everyone on the plane is safe and well except for the pilot. We need help."
Another passenger described how several people had rushed the cockpit after a man armed with a knife allegedly stabbed one of the pilots.
“We simply jumped in and pulled him out of the cockpit, a few of us. Everything is okay now," he said, adding that the attacker had been subdued and crew members were inside the cockpit.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later addressed the incident, saying he had spoken with one of the Israeli passengers aboard the aircraft.
According to Netanyahu, one pilot stabbed the other and “apparently tried to crash the plane with everyone on board."
“I spoke with one of the Israeli passengers," Netanyahu said. “He told me that the aircraft went into a spin and began to plunge. He told me that, one way or another, he managed to break into the cockpit with one of the crew members, and together they neutralized the stabbing pilot while he was trying to sabotage the aircraft’s systems."
Netanyahu said another flight crew member aboard the aircraft then entered the cockpit and managed to stabilize the plane.
“I salute these heroes, who displayed extraordinary resourcefulness and courage," he said. “They saved many lives. They prevented a major disaster."
The prime minister added that the pilot accused of the stabbing had been arrested and was being questioned by Saudi authorities, while Israel remained in continuous contact with the relevant authorities to ensure the passengers’ safety and their return home.
Defense Minister Israel Katz described the incident as an “attempted jihadist terrorist attack." According to Katz, preliminary information indicated that the attacker intended to crash the aircraft with everyone aboard. He said the incident was thwarted by Israeli passengers who entered the cockpit, overpowered the attacker and helped return control of the aircraft to another flight crew.
Even after the emergency landing, however, the ordeal was not entirely over for the passengers. Some expressed concern about boarding another Flydubai aircraft for the journey back to Israel.
Manes said those fears were understandable after what they had experienced.
“It makes sense that people are afraid to fly with the same airline after going through something so traumatic," he said.
He added that the passengers had spoken with Israeli security officials who reassured them. Manes said he personally checked the identities of the pilots assigned to the replacement flight and learned that one was Australian and the other Ukrainian.
For Manes, who was traveling with his wife and young daughters, the incident remained deeply personal.
“This is a shocking event by any measure," he said. “I’m here with my family, with young girls. It is traumatic for everyone."
What began with muffled screams behind a closed cockpit door had, within minutes, become a struggle for control of the aircraft: a wounded pilot, a rapidly descending plane, passengers rushing into action and a violent effort to restrain the alleged attacker.
In the middle of the chaos, the passengers used what they had at hand. The headphone cables distributed for the flight’s entertainment system became makeshift restraints - helping them, according to Manes’ account, keep the pilot subdued until control of the aircraft was secured.