The pilot hailed as a hero for averting an air disaster on a flight to Israel on Wednesday told an interviewer last year that air crew could “save your life” if something went wrong in the skies.
“Captain Smit Machchhar is a hero,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote of his compatriot on X. “In the face of the gravest danger and despite being seriously injured, he showed immense courage and an unwavering resolve to protect the lives of others.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Flydubai Boeing 373 Max 8, carrying mainly Israeli passengers from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Israel, was forced to divert to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after a copilot allegedly stabbed his colleague, Machchhar, and tried to crash the aircraft.
Netanyahu called Machchhar a “true hero” in a post on X.
Flight FZ 1073 dropped roughly 16,000 feet during the incident. There were 174 passengers on board.
Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, Machchhar was able to release the lock on the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to overpower the co-pilot and gain control of the aircraft. The attacker has not been formally identified.
A Flydubai aircraft carrying Israelis who experienced an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia parked at Ben Gurion International Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sept. 30, 2026. Ariel Schalit /AP Photo
According to Machchhar’s LinkedIn profile, he has flown 9,750 hours and has 13 years of experience flying Boeing 737 jets for an Indian airline, SpiceJet, and Flydubai, which he joined two years ago.
Machchhar was interviewed by entrepreneur and podcaster Zalak Mehta on her YouTube channel Bona-Fide Banter in October 2025, and he praised the training that air crews receive in safety and emergency procedures.
‘Who’s Going to Save You?’
“When we are up there and if something happens, who’s going to save you?” Machchhar said, adding that in an emergency, a doctor might be on board, but if not, the crew “can save your life.”
“When things are going wrong, you need them,” he said.
Machchhar said that as a boy, he thought he would end up working for his family’s textile business, but at the age of 19, he got the idea of working as a pilot.
“Unlike a lot of other aviators right now, aviation was not a childhood dream,” he said. “It came along much later in my life.”
He said he enrolled in a textile engineering course after leaving school in Mumbai, and then studied management.
But he told Mehta that it was during an aviation seminar that he grew interested in flying. He went on to train as a pilot in New Zealand.
Pilot Career
During the YouTube interview, Machchhar also spoke about how he liked to compartmentalize his life, and did not like people knowing he was a pilot.
“When I get out of the cockpit or the aircraft, I don’t want the other guy to know that I’m a pilot,” Machchhar said.
“When I wear the uniform, then no nonsense and just do your job, finish the job. When you walk out of the cockpit, that’s it. Stop thinking about that. Someone else needs you now. The kids are there. They want to play with you.”
Machchhar was taken to a hospital in stable condition, the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, said late Wednesday. Embassy officials said Thursday that his family had been briefed on his recovery.
In a post on X on Thursday, Modi said 1.4 billion Indians saluted Machchhar and prayed for his well-being.
“Captain Smit Machchhar has shown the world the highest form of courage,” Modi said. “Without fearing for his own life, he fought valiantly and prevented another 9/11 like attack from happening.”
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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