After being informed by intercom that a hijacking was in progress, Captain Uri Bar Lev decided not to accede to their demands:
"I decided that we were not going to be hijacked. The security guy was sitting here ready to jump. I told him that I was going to put the plane into negative-G mode. Everyone would fall. When you put the plane into negative, it's like being in a falling elevator. Instead of the plane flying this way, it dives and everyone who is standing falls down."
[6]
Bar Lev put the plane into a steep nosedive which threw the two hijackers off-balance. Argüello reportedly threw his sole grenade down the airliner aisle, but it failed to explode, and he was hit over the head with a bottle of
whiskey by a passenger after he drew his pistol. Argüello shot
steward Shlomo Vider and according to the passengers and Israeli security personnel, was then shot by a sky marshal.
[7] His accomplice Khaled was subdued by security and passengers, while the plane made an
emergency landing at
London Heathrow Airport