The airline captain who helped thwart an apparent attempt to crash a FlyDubai flight told how he fought for his life in the minutes after his co-pilot stabbed him and the plane began a potentially deadly descent.
Capt. Smit Machchhar, from India, is now recovering in an Abu Dhabi hospital.
He told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a video call broadcast live on television news channels that he knew he had to get back on his feet to save the passengers aboard the aircraft.
“I had so many wounds. I had fallen down,” he said from the hospital, his head bandaged and tubes in his nose, before breaking down as he recalled the attack.
“I was fighting for my life. At one point, I realized that if I didn’t get up … then passengers would lose their lives,” he told Modi.
The flight plunged more than 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds during the incident as it flew over Saudi Arabia on the journey from the United Arab Emirates to Israel, according to the flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
Machchhar, who is from India’s financial hub of Mumbai, was seriously injured in Wednesday’s attack but managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to enter and restrain the attacker as the Boeing 737 descended sharply, witnesses and Israeli authorities said. He has been hailed as a hero for his actions, with world leaders saying he helped prevent a potential disaster.
The flight, carrying 182 people from Dubai to Tel Aviv, was diverted to Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia for an emergency landing.
Yaniv Hayun, one of the men who incapacitated the attacker, described running to the cockpit as the plane nosedived.
"We pulled the assailant out, I pulled him out. After I pulled him out we took control of the plane, I pulled up the yoke (steering control of the plane), I straightened the plane out a bit," he said, talking to reporters upon his return to Israel on Wednesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacker, an Omani national, was arrested in Saudi Arabia and was undergoing interrogation there.
Machchhar said that during those difficult moments, 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.
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.
Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News on Thursday: "We know that (the co-pilot) he underwent Islamist radical indoctrination. That appears to be something we are gathering from his personal information," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News on Thursday
Two Israeli security officials said Israel's initial assessment was that the co-pilot, identified by Israel as an Omani national, was likely acting alone, though the investigation was still ongoing.
Netanyahu said it was clear that the co-pilot was suicidal.
"It looks very likely that he was going to down the plane," Netanyahu said. Coupled with "the Islamist tendencies, that radicalization that are found in his background, I think that's ... a pretty good clue," he said, without elaborating.
"But again, I don't make final conclusions yet. But that's the indications we have now," he added.
The incident heightened security fears in Israel weeks before Israelis vote in the first election since the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, with Israel's security figuring prominently in the campaigning.
The US and Israel launched strikes against Iran in February, in a conflict that quickly spread to the Gulf and Lebanon, where Israel has been fighting Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
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