‘He got up to pray, then attacked from behind with an axe’: Hero pilot Smit Machchhar recounts terrifying flydubai cockpit attack

Smit Machchhar says in video call with Indian PM that he realised if he did not get up ‘pᴀssengers would lose their lives’

The Indian pilot who helped thwart an apparent attempt to crash a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv said his faith and his desire to save his pᴀssengers allowed him to make a “last push” to open the cockpit door as he fought for his life.

Capt Smit Machchhar, who was recovering in an Abu Dhabi hospital, described to India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, how he helped save the plane and its more than 170 pᴀssengers.

“I had suffered so many injuries that I had collapsed. At that time, I could feel that the aircraft was going down. I knew this was the last push,” Machchhar told Modi in a video call on Friday. “I was fighting for my life. At one point, I realised that if I didn’t get up … then pᴀssengers would lose their lives.”

His Omani co-pilot apparently stabbed him and set the plane on a steep descent, with the aircraft plummeting about 17,000 feet in the span of a minute. While still being attacked, Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door, allowing pᴀssengers to enter, subdue the attacker and ultimately stabilise the plane.