FlyDubai Captain Smit Machchhar faced a harrowing ordeal when his co-pilot attacked him during a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv with more than 170 passengers aboard the plane.
According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Machchhar was grievously injured. “He was stabbed in the head, and his arm was basically split in two, and there was a lot of blood,” Netanyahu revealed to Fox & Friends.
But despite that, Machchhar fought back, and he recounted those moments to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a video call, telling him he knew he had to act to help save the passengers and the plane.
He said he was wounded and he had fallen to the floor, but he said he was in that moment, "fighting for my life." He said despite his injuries he could tell what was going on with the plane because he'd been a pilot for 17 years and a captain for the past 11 years.
"At that moment, I was fighting for my life."
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 2, 2026
Hero pilot Smit Machchhar speaks out for the first time since the attempted FlyDubai hijacking.
Machchhar walks through the harrowing moments he fought to save the flight, even as he was wounded and knocked to the ground.
The… pic.twitter.com/RnzXnXendJ
Machchhar realized that the aircraft was going down, but he told himself, "This is the last push, Smit; the door is right there." He was still getting hit, but he got the door open. He also praised the other people who came to help, saying they all shared a role in saving the plane. He said he was trying to save himself, but he "knew he couldn't let anyone else die."
Netanyahu explained how a dentist on board helped to stabilize Machchhar's condition after they had secured the plane.
Machchhar told Modi he was fine. Machchhar was initially treated in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, but was then transferred to Abu Dhabi for more medical care.
Modi told him everyone was praying for him and proud of what he had done.
The authorities are now looking into the co-pilot attacker and believe that he received some radical Islamist indoctrination. They are also looking into how he was assigned the flight.
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