Israeli plumber Yaniv Hayoun, who helped overpower the alleged hijacker co-pilot aboard Wednesday’s Tel Aviv-bound flydubai flight, has been praised by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for helping avert “another 9/11.”
Netanyahu hailed Hayoun’s bravery during the flight from Dubai and said he would seek to determine whether Iran played any role in the attack, which sent the aircraft into a terrifying nosedive.
“He acted with a coolness of judgment and heroism that prevented another 9/11,” Netanyahu said of Hayoun during an appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Wednesday night.
After the plane landed safely in Israel, Netanyahu met with Hayoun, who was “completely stained with blood” following the confrontation.
Hayoun told the prime minister that he “just had to do it” after rushing into action from the plane’s 16th row. He attempted to protect the 174 people aboard, most of them Israelis, including members of his own family.
“He’s an incredible hero. Look at what he did under impossible circumstances,” Netanyahu told host Sean Hannity.
“Without his courage, we’d have faced a disaster of unbelievable proportions,” he added.
During their meeting, Hayoun explained that he works as a plumber, specializing in “unclogging sewage clogs.” Netanyahu responded with a joke: “Well, you certainly unclogged a big one this time.”
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The prime minister also commended the Indian co-pilot, who was brutally stabbed, along with the other passengers who helped “stop a disaster that could have been global.”
Netanyahu said he spoke with Hayoun’s children, who were among approximately 30 children on the flight. They told him they were thrown toward the ceiling as the plane plunged into its nosedive.
Although Netanyahu did not definitively describe the alleged hijacking attempt as a terrorist attack, he pledged to investigate the co-pilot’s motive.
“I don’t know the exact background of this person, the attacker, but he obviously hated Israelis because he was going to kill about 170 of them on this plane, killing himself too,” Netanyahu said of the unidentified pilot.
“So that’s fanaticism and hatred of an incalculable level,” he added. “But that’s what we’re facing.”
Netanyahu said he believes the flydubai pilot who allegedly initiated the attack is being investigated in Saudi Arabia. Israel, he added, will be “following and possibly also participating in this investigation.”
“It’s no secret that Iran wants to target Israelis abroad, wants to target Israel here,” Netanyahu said.
“We’ll get to the root of this attacker, whether he had accomplices, whether Iran was behind it. I think we’ll find out, very soon,” he added.
