Yaniv Hayun

Common card · No. 248027

Yaniv Hayun (Hebrew: יניב חיון) (born 1975/1976) is an Israeli citizen and plumber, known for his role on Flydubai Flight 1073 in saving an airplane of passengers and crew, when the co-pilot tried to crash the aircraft in an attempted hijacking. On 30 September 2026, Hayun was traveling back with his wife and two daughters from a vacation to Vietnam, returning to Israel by way of Dubai. He heard screams from another passenger and was alerted to a stabbing going on in the cockpit. The plane rapidly descended 17,000 feet. Hayun was the first passenger to get up and rush towards the front of the plane to investigate. He found Captain Smit Machchhar after he was assaulted by his copilot. Hayun grabbed the assailant in a chokehold and forcibly removed him from the cockpit. Utilizing skills he learned from watching the television show, Mayday (also known as Air Crash Investigation), he then returned to the cockpit and pulled back on the yoke and leveled out the airplane. Off-duty pilots also...

Read on Wikipedia · Image U.S. Embassy Jerusalem, CC BY 4.0