A six-year-old girl played a crucial role in preventing a major disaster when a co-pilot attacked a flight captain on board a FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
Nina Manes happened to ask her mother Tali to take her to the lavatory on board the flight just as the man, who is an Omani national but has not been named, attacked Indian Cpt Smit Machchhar by stabbing him repeatedly.
Her mother raised the alarm after she heard shouting coming from the cockpit prompting cabin crew to rush to the scene.
“There was blood all over the cockpit and very, very sharp fighting moves,” Manes told Israel’s Channel 12.
“I screamed, ‘He’s stabbing the pilot, he’s stabbing the pilot, come help!’ People looked at me and didn’t understand.”
Her husband Zvika Manes said: “The shrieks of my daughters when the plane nose-dived [are still with me]. They said, ‘Dad we don’t want to die.’ [Their cries] were the triggers that caused me to run inside the cockpit.”
Passengers on board the plane have recounted the terrifying moments they felt the plane plunge thousands of feet as a group overpowered the co-pilot and tried to assist Capt Machchar.
“We’re here during the hijacking of an airplane,” said one passenger with blood running down his face, in a plea posted to social media during the melee.
“At this point we’ve subdued the terrorists, we’re approaching landing. Whoever is hearing me, we need help.”
Yasmin Abu Kasis, the mother of one of the passengers, said her daughter Miriam heard screaming and saw a man with a weapon put the pilot on the floor.
“The plane start to lose control. So all the people, they scream,” she told The Associated Press.
Cpt Machchhar, covered with blood and lying on the floor, had managed to click open the release on the cockpit door so help could get through.
“Someone shouted ‘stabbing’ and my husband immediately understood what was happening and rushed to the front of the plane, and along with other Israelis they neutralised the terrorist,” Meital, a passenger whose husband was involved in the onboard brawl, told Israel’s Channel 12.
“There were stabbings and a lot of blood. We’re very emotional and under terrible stress; it’s very difficult for me to talk.”
A plumber who put the attacker in a chokehold and a dentist who gave life-saving first aid to the pilot are among four people who have been recommended for Israel’s presidential award.
Israeli president Isaac Herzog said he will recommend Yaniv Hayoun, Tzvika Manes, and Asaf Rajuan for the country’s Presidential Award for Civilian Heroism.
Authorities are continuing to investigate the incident amid claims by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu the pilot had undergone jihadist indoctrination.
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