Indian pilot Smit Machchhar, seriously wounded during the attempted hijacking of a Flydubai airline flight from the UAE to Tel Aviv, spoke for the first time since the incident about what happened in the cockpit before he managed to open the door.
During a video call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Captain Machchhar said he was lying on the floor while the co-pilot continued to attack him. At the same time, he understood that the plane was quickly losing altitude and something had to be done.
“I was lying on the floor wounded, but I told myself that I had to make one last effort and open the door from the inside,” he said. — So that other people enter the cabin and also help take control of the situation. Of course, I fought for my own life, but at the same time I understood that I would not allow others to die.”
According to the flight passengers, who burst into the cockpit to subdue the attacker, when they entered, they saw the first pilot lying on the floor in a pool of blood.
Later, the Israeli doctor who provided first aid to Machchhar on board confirmed that the pilot had lost a lot of blood.
Passengers on the flight and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called his effort to reach the door unlock button in this condition a true heroism.
Narendra Modi also told the captain that his "courage, endurance and ability to make quick decisions saved the lives of many people."
Modi emphasized that all of India is proud of him.
The Indian Embassy in the UAE on Thursday said Machchhar was "doing well and making a good recovery." Ambassador Deepak Mittal said he was "proud of Captain Smith's courage" and was greatly relieved after meeting him.
“I try not to think of this as a wound, because then it would be even harder to recover,” Machchhar said. “I look at this as a path that I’m gradually going through and that will take time. But I am confident that I will recover and be healthy again.”
The incident occurred on board a Flydubai flight on Wednesday.
About two hours after the start of the flight, the airliner abruptly lost more than 17 thousand feet (5.2 km) of altitude.
One of the passengers, accompanying her young daughter to the toilet, heard a noise in the cockpit and attracted the attention of other passengers and crew.
It soon became clear that there was a struggle going on inside the cabin.
Passengers tried to get inside, but this turned out to be impossible. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, the protocol was changed on all airlines around the world, according to which it became possible to open the door to the pilot's cabin only from the inside.
As the plane continued to lose altitude, the door suddenly gave way, allowing several Israelis to neutralize the co-pilot, who attacked the captain with a knife and, according to eyewitnesses, tried to disable the plane's control panel.
Then, through the joint efforts of the passengers and the pilot on board, the plane was stabilized and subsequently landed at the airport in Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia.
The wounded Machchhar was immediately taken to the Tabuk hospital and then transported by air ambulance to Abu Dhabi.
The picture of what happened on board the flight took shape gradually.
Passenger Yaniv Hayut, who was the first to enter the cabin, said that when he entered, it seemed to him that he pushed aside the captain lying on the floor with the door. After these words, it became obvious that the wounded pilot most likely managed to reach the unlock button.
Israeli authorities call what happened on the flight to Tel Aviv an attempt to hijack the plane with the aim of crashing.
The attacker, who turned out to be a native and citizen of Oman, is under investigation, the progress of which has not yet been reported.
Captain Machchhar grew up in Mumbai, where his parents still live.
The seasoned Boeing 737 pilot, with nearly 9,750 hours of flight time over his roughly 15-year career, came to aviation relatively late in life.
“Unlike many other pilots, aviation was not my dream since childhood,” he said in an interview published in 2025. “This hobby appeared in my life much later.”
After finishing school, Machchhar enrolled in a course in textile technology, planning to continue the family business, and then went on to study management at a management institute in Mumbai. It was there, at an aviation seminar when he was about 19 years old, that he discovered the world of aviation, writes Reuters.
“Aviation really captivated me,” said the pilot.
