Pilot's Account of In-Flight Incident

The pressure was immense, a force pulling me down.

And someone else stood at the door in a white shirt. I assume

it was the pilot.

Because there were two pilots inside.

And outside, there just happened to be two pilots sitting in the ca— ca— cabin.

I don't know what they were doing there, their pilots.

He and I pushed the door. The pilot who was stabbed was simply

close to the door, so it was hard for us to open it, but I think, in my opinion,

that's my conclusion.

You think he opened it.

He managed to open it.

How did he open it? He had to get up there, right?

Before he collapsed.

Before he collapsed, he managed to.

He managed to.

Wow, that was great resourcefulness.

When I went in, I saw the attacker

on the controls between the two seats. There were no, there were no pilots

in the seats. One was down below, one was on the controls, and another person came in

with me.

I grabbed the, the attacker and put him in a chokehold

and first of all pulled him outside.

What was he doing on those controls? What was he doing?

He was trying to destroy the controls in order

to, to, to...

That's what—

to disable the plane.

That's what you saw.

Yes.

Okay.

We got him out. It took seconds.

Seconds.

The plane's nose was down like this.

I called to the Israelis who were with us on the plane.

I called them, they came, two more guys jumped on him. I told them that...

We pinned him to the seat, I jumped back to it, pulled the

controls,

started pulling the controls, and then the...

You pulled the controls?

Yes.

You knew—back?

Back.

You knew?

I watch aviation investigations, that's something else I know.

Really. And the plane started to level out a little more, then

The pilot told me he was taking control from here. That...