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After being stabbed by his co-pilot, Captain Smit Machchhar bravely managed to open the cockpit door to let passengers in. Now he has spoken from hospital about what happened, as ITV News Correspondent John Ray reports
The Indian Flydubai pilot hailed as a hero for helping to thwart a suspected hijacking attempt by his co-pilot has said he could not “let everybody else die”.
Captain Smit Machchhar is recovering in an Abu Dhabi hospital after he was stabbed by his Omani co-pilot on a Dubai to Tel Aviv flight on Wednesday.
Speaking publicly for the first time in a video call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, the pilot said: “I had so many wounds. I had fallen down… I was thinking what if I don’t get up?
“I was fighting for my life. At one point, I realised that if I didn’t get up… then passengers would lose their lives.”
Watch: The moment passengers seize control of flight FZ 1073 after cockpit attack – Credit: CNN
Cpt Machchhar, from Mumbai, was seriously injured but managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to enter and restrain the attacker as the Boeing 737 descended sharply.
The pilot told Modi how he was on the ground when he realised the plane was going down, and thought to himself “one last push, Smit! Just do it. The door is right there”.
“Even at that time, he was beating me up… And then I just opened it… and then everybody came,” he said. “I was doing this for my life, but at the same time, I knew that I couldn’t let everybody else die.”
Cpt Machchhar said that during the struggle he recited the Hanuman Chalisa, a Hindu devotional hymn dedicated to Lord Hanuman and traditionally recited as a prayer for strength and courage.
“Lord Hanuman gave me courage,” he told Modi.
Modi praised Cpt Machchhar’s heroics, telling the veteran pilot that his “courage, patience and quick thinking… saved the lives of so many people.”
“You yourself were fighting the battle of life and death,” he said.
Captain Smit Machchhar spoke to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi from hospital. Credit: AP
Cpt Machchhar, who is married and has two children, has worked for Flydubai for about four years, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Before joining the airline, he spent 11 years with SpiceJet, an Indian low-cost carrier, where he served as a senior commander and line training captain. He logged more than 9,750 flying hours with SpiceJet.
The flight, carrying 182 people, was diverted to Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia for an emergency landing.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacker, an Omani national, was arrested in Saudi Arabia and was undergoing interrogation there. His motive for the attack was not immediately clear.
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Netanyahu said the suspect “underwent Islamist radical indoctrination”, but questions remain around how the incident unfolded and what motivated the rogue pilot.
Among those to rush towards the cockpit was plumber Yaniv Hayoun, who was embraced by Netanyahu after passengers were returned to Tel Aviv late on Wednesday.
He recounted to the prime minister how he put the alleged attacker in a chokehold and dragged him out of the cockpit with other passengers.
The Israeli national said he then gabbed the plane’s controls and managed to bring the aircraft back under control despite having no flying experience.
“I asked him, how did you know how to do that? And he said, ‘Well, I, I watched these air disaster films,’” Netanyahu told Fox News.
Dr Shota Musaev, a dentist on board, told ITV News’ North American partner CNN how he tied the attacker up using headphone cords and plastic zip ties before tending to the wounded pilot.
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Even after the attacker was restrained, passengers remained terrified.
“There was nothing but desert beneath us; we feared being taken to an enemy country or landing in the middle of the desert,” Assaf Rajuan, one of the passengers who subdued the co-pilot, told CNN. “We didn’t know who to trust.”
In another extraordinary turn of events, there were people on board the flight who were qualified to fly a plane and were able to bring the aircraft safely down.
Netanyahu and Flydubai confirmed that reserve pilots who were in the passenger area managed to regain control of the aircraft. The flight was diverted to Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk Airport, where it touched down at 9.54am.
David Soucie, a CNN aviation safety analyst, said it was fairly uncommon for additional on-duty pilots to be on flights “unless they are being repositioned for other flights.”
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