Flydubai passenger describes putting attacker in chokehold after cockpit stabbing

While others described the "terrifying" moment they thought they would die, passengers on a flight to Israel have recounted how they subdued a pilot after he stabbed the other pilot and appeared to be trying to disable the plane.

Key points

• The plane, en route from Dubai to Tel Aviv, plummeted 17, 000ft (5, 200m) in less than two minutes.
• Appearing in a bloodstained shirt after the ordeal, Yaniv Hayun informed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he realised something was wrong when the aircraft suddenly dropped.
• When asked by Netanyahu whether he knew what he was doing, the passenger answered: "I watch Air Crash Investigation, Mr Prime Minister."
• The stabbed pilot, Indian national Captain Smit Machchhar, was taken to hospital but is in stable condition, according to the Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia.
• Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has called it an "attempted jihadist terror attack".

Meanwhile, the plane, en route from Dubai to Tel Aviv, plummeted 17, 000ft (5, 200m) in less than two minutes.

"Someone screamed. The light went out, " Hayun remarked in a video posted by the prime minister on social media.

He and others tried to push open the cockpit door, but the pilot who had been stabbed was particularly close to it, so it was hard to open. Before he collapsed, the injured pilot managed to open the door.

When Hayun and another man entered the cockpit, he remarked he saw one pilot down and the attacker on the instruments, between the two seats, "trying to destroy the instruments in order to.disable the plane".

"I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold, and pulled him – first and foremost – outside, " Hayun remarked.

"We pulled him out; it was a matter of seconds. I called out to the Israeli guys with us on the plane – I called them, and two other guys came over to me. We pinned down to keep him secure."

Hayun remarked he then jumped back into the cockpit and "started pulling the controls".

Hayun remarked the plane then kicked off to level out. By then, two on-duty pilots who had been in the passenger cabin were at the front of the plane, and one informed Hayun he was taking control from there. Netanyahu praised Hayun, calling him a "great hero" and a "lion".

Another passenger, Zvika Meness, informed Israeli public broadcaster Kan he assisted overpower the attacker, and the passenger and two others "tied him up with his own zip ties and with the multimedia headphones".

"Another pilot who was sitting in the passenger cabin went in to replace the additional pilot, and they essentially landed the plane, " he continued.

For context, the Flydubai flight eventually landed at Tabuk airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia, and the passengers were afterwards taken to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport on a repatriation aircraft.

They were greeted by crowds of onlookers playing music, singing, dancing and waving Israeli flags.

"Thank God I'm alive, " passenger Haim Lazarovich informed journalists, adding that "the most terrifying moment in this flight was when the pilot loses control".

Oran Choen, an 18-year-old passenger, described the incident as "a very tough moment".

"Maybe it was five minutes, but it feels like hell – I heard my brother behind me scream that we was going to die, " he continued.

Meanwhile, a paramedic from Israel's ambulance service afterwards informed the BBC that a number of residents were "very emotional and crying as they came off the plane".

In practice, the stabbed pilot, Indian national Captain Smit Machchhar, was taken to hospital but is in stable condition, according to the Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia. Netanyahu praised Machchhar as a "true hero" of "extraordinary bravery". The attacker was arrested and is being questioned by Saudi authorities.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has called it an "attempted jihadist terror attack". No official motive for the incident or further information has been given.

For now, flydubai passenger describes putting attacker in chokehold after cockpit stabbing remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.