Greg Khan, 38, said that after the signal was given for the crew to get up from their seats, he saw a man heading towards him.

At first Mr Khan assumed that the passenger, a 40-year-old unemployed computer analyst, was going to the toilet, before he noticed his wide, staring eyes.

I just thought 'well, you're not getting in there to the flight deck' Purser Greg Khan

"I thought he was just someone who freaked and wanted to get off the flight," he told Australian media.

Mr Khan had not noticed that the man was armed with wooden stakes.

"As he got, like, two steps away from me, both arms came up and he... sort of had me in like a bear hug and was just stabbing the back of my head with - what I saw, it looked like one of those wooden doorstep things.

"At that stage, I just thought, well, 'you're not getting in there to the flight deck,' so I took him on, I suppose, and pushed him back to row six... he just kept (up) his frenzy of stabbing the back of my head

"I was pushing him back, basically, 'til I could get him on the ground and he went down, I went down on top of him. I didn't realise I was bleeding 'til then, I was sort of numb to any pain..."

Mr Khan said that once the man was on the floor, other passengers helped and they managed to restrain his attacker.

Mr Khan said that the man, David Robinson, remained silent throughout the attack. Reports on Thursday said that he had shouted out that he wanted to crash the plane.

Asked if he was surprised that passengers had helped subdue the man, Mr Khan replied: "Not since September 11, no one's going to put up with that any more," he said.

The Sydney Morning Herald said the man might also have planned to use an aerosol can and a lighter as a makeshift flamethrower.

Mr Khan said he did not feel like a hero and was "just doing my job".