Netanyahu credits heroic Israeli plumber on flydubai flight for preventing ‘another 9/11’– vows to find out if Iran was behind attack

Ella Morrison / NEW YORK POST  

The courageous Israeli plumber who helped subdue the alleged hijacker co-pilot of Wednesday’s Tel Aviv-bound flydubai flight was praised by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for preventing “another 9/11.”

Netanyahu praised passenger Yaniv Hayoun for his heroics aboard the flight from Dubai – and vowed to find out if Iran was behind the attack that sent the plane into a horrifying nosedive.

“He acted with a coolness of judgement and heroism that prevented another 9/11,” the prime minister said of Hayoun on Fox News’ “Hannity” Wednesday night.

Netanyahu met with Hayoun, who was “completely stained with the blood,” after making it back to Israeli soil safely.

The hero told the prime minister “he just had to do it” when he selflessly jumped into action from the plane’s 16th row during the bloody attack in an attempt to save the 174 passengers onboard, most of whom were Israelis — including his 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 told Netanyahu he was a plumber who “unclogs sewage clogs” for a living, to which Bibi quipped, “Well, you certainly unclogged a big one this time.”

Netanyahu also praised the Indian co-pilot who was brutally stabbed, as well as the other passengers who “stopped a disaster that could have been global.”

Netanyahu said he also spoke with Hayoun’s children who were among around 30 kids onboard the horrifying flight, who said they “flew to the ceiling” while the plane was in a nosedive.

The prime minister stopped short of calling the alleged hijacking attempt a terrorist attack, but he pledged to find out 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,” Bibi added. “But that’s what we’re facing.”

Netanyahu believes the flydubai pilot who initiated the attack is being investigated in Saudi Arabia — and noted that Israel 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.”

“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 said. See photos here.