Wounded in an attack by his co-pilot, FlyDubai Captain Smit Machchhar opened the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to intervene
The Indian captain of the FlyDubai flight to Tel Aviv, who was severely wounded in an attack by his co-pilot inside the cockpit on Wednesday, has been praised by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a hero for helping passengers and crew regain control of the jet.
Captain Smit Machchhar, whose family is from Mumbai, is being treated at a hospital in Saudi Arabia and is reported to be in stable condition.
Flydubai flight FZ1073 was traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv when Machchhar was stabbed by his co-pilot, who Netanyahu said was an Omani national and had apparently tried to crash the aircraft. The jet plunged about 17,400 feet in under two minutes before passengers and crew subdued the attacker and took control of the plane.
The Omani foreign ministry hasn’t commented on the incident. A severely wounded Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door even as he grappled with his co-pilot, and raised an alarm – an act that allowed the passengers to intervene.
“I started helping the pilot because he had lost a lot of blood and was in bad shape,” a dentist on board the flight, Shota Musaev, told CNN. “He was covered in cuts – his head, his hands – they were practically sliced open, almost severed in two.” Musaev treated the pilot and also helped the other passengers subdue the attacker.
“I think that if we had waited even a few more moments, we would have lost him,” Musaev said.
Modi called Machchhar a “hero” on Thursday. “His valor helped save hundreds of lives and avert a great tragedy,” the Indian prime minister posted on X.
📹 ICYMI: Flydubai Hero 🇮🇳 Captain Who Helped Foil Mid-Air Attack Spoke About Crew’s Role A Year Ago
In the interview, Capt. Smit Machchhar spoke about how passengers depend on crew in an emergency.
Netanyahu praised Machchhar’s “extraordinary bravery.” He called the Indian captain a “true hero” and said his actions had helped in preventing “a catastrophic mid-air disaster,” and saved the 174 people on board the plane.
Musaev said he spoke with Machchhar while treating him and learned that the 39-year-old has two children and lives in Dubai. Machchhar has nearly 9,750 flying hours on Boeing 737 aircraft. He spent about 11 years with the Indian carrier SpiceJet, where he became a senior commander and line training captain responsible for training and checking other pilots, before joining Flydubai in 2022. His experience includes more than 6,400 hours as pilot-in-command at SpiceJet.
“None,” Machchhar told an interviewer last year when asked what he considered more important, a smooth landing or on-time arrival. “Safety,” he added in a prescient comment.
“As long as you’re walking out of the aircraft is what I want,” he added.
India’s embassy in Riyadh and the consulate in Jeddah are monitoring Machchhar’s condition and remain in contact with his family and Saudi authorities.
Machchhar had originally planned to join his family’s textile business, but later pursued management studies in Mumbai and trained as a pilot in New Zealand, local media reported.
Flydubai confirmed that an altercation occurred on the flight deck but said the underlying reasons and motive remain unknown and subject to a formal investigation.
