"You don't know what's happening, nobody explains to you that there's a terrorist or that someone's actually been stabbed. I started talking to G-d." That is how Peleg Itali, a 16-year-old boy, described to Ynet the moments of terror aboard the Flydubai flight from Dubai, a flight that was spared, b'chasdei Shamayim, from crashing.
Itali was seated in the forward rows when the aircraft began to pitch violently. "I heard a woman screaming, 'He's been stabbed, he's been stabbed.' Two heroes jumped forward toward the cockpit, and it turns out they managed to stop the terrorist who had stabbed one of the pilots," he recounted.
He went on to describe his conversation with the Ribbono Shel Olam in those moments: "I told Him, I swear, I'm sorry for everything I did, please, Gan Eden. That's what I was thinking, because you see the floor, you feel like you're falling, like that, a touch from G-d. I almost started writing a hesped."
Earlier in the day, Yaniv Chiyon, one of the passengers who subdued the attacker during the flight, described the moments of drama. In a conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Chiyon said: "I apologize that I have blood on my clothes. I asked ten times for the suitcases so I could change my clothes before the meeting."
Netanyahu replied: "You don't need to apologize, you're the hero. We are a nation of lions, a nation like a lion. I look at you and I see a lion, and I see a great hero. It's simply unbelievable what you did."
