Two passengers on the Flydubai flight, Zvika Manes and Daniel Schlichter, told the New York Post that several crew members on the plane confronted them and asked them to release the Omani terrorist. Manes, who was among the passengers who neutralized the terrorist, said in an interview that "they asked us to release the terrorist, we had no idea why. They said: 'You are not God, you are not going to kill him.' We didn't want to kill him, we just wanted him not to kill us." Schlichter, who was sitting in the second row on the plane, said that "they told us to release the terrorist – and we immediately became suspicious of them."