Flydubai passenger on mid-air attack: I hugged my children as the plane dived

A passenger aboard a Flydubai flight has described hugging his children and keeping his voice steady as the aircraft dived following an attack in the cockpit, telling them that it was only a technical fault.

The passenger, identified as 40-year-old Polovincik, a performance marketing analyst, said the plane's sudden plunge first felt like an air pocket, but that it continued for "almost a minute". Everyone who was not seated fell to the floor, he said.

"After a couple of seconds, we started to hear screams. 'There is blood, there is stabbing, we need help'," he recounted.

"At the end of the day, you understand very, very quickly that literally there is nothing that you can do at this point in time," he said.

Mr Polovincik said he tried to remain calm for his children. "You just tell them, yeah, everything's going to be all right. It's just a malfunction in the aeroplane, there is a crew under control, the passengers are helping them," he said. "[You] hug them really hard and try to keep your face so it doesn't look very panicked, try to keep your tone of voice."

He added that there was naturally a "high degree of panic" on board. Many families with children were travelling on the flight, which took place towards the end of a Jewish holiday period.

After about 10 to 15 minutes, he said, a passenger in the cockpit told those on board that the incident was "under control" and that other staff were flying the plane.

In a video released by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, passenger Yaniv Hayun described putting the attacker in a chokehold and pulling him out of the cockpit, after which other passengers helped pin him down.

Two other pilots who were on board then took over the controls and landed the aircraft safely, according to the accounts. More than 150 passengers were on the flight.

Mr Polovincik praised Indian pilot Capt Smit Machchhar, who fought off his attacker and opened the cockpit door, allowing passengers to step in.

"Without him opening the door, we're probably not speaking here right now," he said, adding that he "can't even start saying our gratitude for this human being".

He said the aftermath was difficult to explain to his children. "After they told us that the situation is, again, 'under control', then it was a bit harder to tell the kids that it's malfunctioned, because people start to walk around the aeroplane covered with blood."

Mr Polovincik said that although he was not religious, he could not escape "the feeling that it was the hand of God yesterday" that had put "the pieces on the board in the way that they did". "It's remarkable," he said.

The accounts given by passengers have been reported as described by them. Independent verification of all details of the incident was not immediately available.