Indian pilot Smit Mosquito saves plane from crash due to co-pilot's attack, gets praise

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Indian pilot Smit Machar is being praised as a hero for saving the Israel-bound flydubai plane from crashing.

Smit Mosquito is being praised in the media around the world and every aspect of his life is being scrutinized.

UK news agency Reuters has written in its report that aviation was never a part of Smit's childhood dreams.

Reuters wrote, "Machhar had his sights set on expanding the family's textile business, but at the age of 19 he developed an interest in aviation, which frightened his mother." Now, even after flying thousands of hours, Mosquito's love for aviation is such that he keeps it confined to the cockpit and avoids talking about it to the people on the ground.

On Wednesday, his plane was diverted towards Tabuk. According to Israeli officials, the co-pilot allegedly attacked the Mosquito in the air and tried to crash the plane carrying 174 people.

Reuters wrote, "According to Israeli officials, the Mumbai resident was lying on the cockpit floor covered in blood when he managed to activate the release system to open the cockpit door. After this, the passengers and crew overpowered the co-pilot, while two Flydubai pilots traveling as passengers helped in landing the plane.

Captain Mosquito, an experienced Boeing 737, has completed approximately 9,750 hours of flying in a career spanning nearly 15 years. However, his entry into aviation came quite late.

Becoming a pilot is not a childhood dream

"Unlike many other aviators of this time, aviation was not my childhood dream. It came much later in my life," Machhar said in an interview on Zalak Mehta's YouTube channel in 2025.

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After school, he enrolled in a textile engineering course as his aim was to take the family business forward. After this he studied management from Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai.

At the age of 19, he came to know about the world of flying during an aviation seminar.

He said in that interview, "This is where my passion for aviation really arose. In the beginning, my mother was very scared about this career."

Smit Mosquito said, “Delay is not my problem. As long as you get out of the plane safely, that's all that matters to me. When I step out of the cockpit or out of the plane, I don't want people in front of me to know that I am a pilot. I don't want to talk about aviation. When I wear the uniform, no nonsense, just do your job and get it done. When you step out of the cockpit, it ends there. Stop thinking about him. Someone else needs you now. The children are there. They want to play with you."

Smite mosquito also discussed a lot in New Zealand

"Mosquito trained in New Zealand for 18 months," Philip Keane, Smit's former trainer for Mainland Air, told New Zealand news website RNZ. I am happy that my former student handled this difficult situation in an excellent manner.

"I was really pleased to read that the way he handled the situation, he handled it as well as he could with the knife still embedded in your body," Keane told RNZ program Checkpoint.

Earlier, Keane had described the Mosquito to the 'New Zealand Herald' as a better than average pilot with a bit of enthusiasm and energy. He said, “This is very scary. The most important thing is that he is still alive."

“He was falling from a great height,” he said. It's a good thing the plane didn't disintegrate and those pilots did a great job handling the plane."

Keane said that he was in touch with Smit through email.

Israel's Ambassador to New Zealand, Alon Roth, said it was nothing short of a miracle that the plane landed safely, especially considering how much damage was done to the plane.

Roth said, "The Israeli who pulled the attacker out took control of the cockpit instruments and stopped the plane from falling rapidly from an altitude of about 20,000 feet in one minute. Therefore, only a few seconds were left for the plane to crash. "I commend the courage of Pilot Smit Mosquito who, despite being seriously injured, managed to open the cockpit door so that other people on board could help."

During the flight from Smit, when the woman said - Captain, I am having labor pain...

Philip Keane told American broadcaster CNN. "He was always a happy-go-lucky young man and he worked very hard."

"He had his own special smile," said Keane, CEO of Dunedin-based Mainland Air. He was a very happy boy."

Before Wednesday's incident, one of the most unusual incidents he had encountered in his flying career spanning more than 15 years was the birth of a child on board.

Mosquito had told in the 'Bona-Fide Banter' podcast that a woman on board the plane, whose delivery date had not yet come, started having labor pain.

He said, "Within 7-10 minutes she started saying, 'Captain, now the child is about to be delivered.'"

Mosquito said that he and the first officer started gathering information about the nearest airfield and the conditions there for a safe landing. Observed the weather conditions of all the airfields and found out what was possible from the operational point of view. We had six-seven minutes. And suddenly within the next few minutes we got a call, 'There is a child on the plane.'"

He said that "both mother and child were fine."

Following news of Mosquito's bravery on a flydubai flight from New Zealand, his former trainer Keane praised the young man he once trained.

He told CNN, "It was really an amazing achievement. Everyone on the plane could have died in a matter of seconds and luckily he was able to open the door. Luckily he was able to keep his composure and save everyone's lives. If another half minute had passed, it would have been all over."

He said, "I'm very proud of her. I'm very proud of the way she handled that situation. It's great that everything worked out in the end."

CNN has written in its report, "39 year old Smit Machhar is the father of two children." He has been seriously injured in this attack. After the attack, a horrifying scene came to light inside the plane. There was blood scattered all around the cockpit and seriously injured pilots were lying on the floor.

The doctor who treated Smit during the flight

Shota Musaev, a dentist who was a passenger on the flight and helped treat the mosquito, told CNN that the mosquito had lost a lot of blood and was seriously injured.

He said, "I think if we had waited a few more moments, we would have lost him. His blood pressure dropped very rapidly, he suddenly fainted and there was blood everywhere."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN that their bravery "helped prevent a tragedy like 9/11."

Speaking to Israeli Army Radio on Thursday, Shota Musaev said, "The cockpit was completely filled with blood. The mosquito had serious injuries on its neck and hands. Due to the knife attack, the Captain's left hand was almost cut in half. When Mosquito's pulse started weakening and he started becoming unconscious, we asked the reserve pilots to land the plane as soon as possible. By then these pilots had taken control of the plane. The plane landed in Tabuk city of north-western Saudi Arabia.

"I don't think he would have made it all the way to Israel. He wanted to live, he didn't want to die. The captain told me that if I didn't survive, send a message to my children. I told him, 'God is with you, pray. Everything will be okay. We are with you,'" he said.

The British newspaper Financial Times has written in its report, "According to an Israeli official, the attacker co-pilot is a citizen of Oman. Netanyahu said Saudi officials would interrogate him.

US President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, "It appears that the co-pilot was probably a terrorist or maybe a crazy person and he attacked the pilot."

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