Captain Smit Machchhar: The ‘jovial’ pilot and father who thwarted the Flydubai attacker

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By Rhea Mogul, Ayushi Shah, CNN

(CNN) — The Indian pilot who fought off a savage attack by his copilot and helped prevent an apparent hijack of a Flydubai plane heading to Israel with more than 170 people on board is being hailed as a hero.

Captain Smit Machchhar was stabbed while trying to fend off the attacker, leaving him badly wounded. During the struggle the cockpit door was opened, allowing other passengers to rush in, subdue his assailant, and take control of the plane that was enroute to Tel Aviv.

Machchhar’s actions have received widespread praise from political leaders, passengers who were onboard, those who know him as well as strangers who gathered in his home town to celebrate his bravery.

Kaushik Gandhi, who lives in the same building as Machchhar’s parents, told CNN the pilot was always smiling and happy, a real “gentleman.”

He described Machchhar as “first class” and said he would always say hello when visiting.

“Our entire India should be proud … he has brought glory to India’s name everywhere in the world,” Gandhi told CNN, adding he was “thumping (his) chest” in pride.

A crowd of supporters have also gathered in Ghatkopar East, the eastern Mumbai suburb where Machchhar’s family lives. They were waving Indian flags and photos of the hero pilot.

“It is a very precious moment and proud moment for a country like us that we have been through, you know, lot of hustles,” Rahul Pandey, one of those gathered there, told CNN.

“Smit Machchhar is a talented, soft spoken, kind-hearted and a person with good nature,” said Jinat Shah, who used to live next door to him in Mumbai before the pilot moved to Dubai. “He is an incredible person, and I hope for his fast recovery,” Shah told Indian news agency ANI.

Passengers who were on flight FZ1073 described those chaotic moments, during which the plane plummeted 17,400 feet in less than 120 seconds. One told CNN: “I was just sure I was going to die.”

But after the attacker was restrained, the flight was diverted to Saudi Arabia, where it was safely landed by two standby pilots who happened to be flying as passengers

Machchhar, who is reported to be a 39-year-old father of two, was seriously wounded in the attack.

Images show showed a gruesome scene onboard following the attack, with blood splashed across the cockpit and the seriously wounded pilot lying on the floor, his pained face partially covered with a mask.

Machchhar had suffered “massive blood loss” and was “severely wounded,” dentist Shota Musaev, a passenger on the flight who helped treat him, told CNN.

“I think that if we had waited even a few more moments, we would have lost him; his blood pressure had plummeted, he suddenly lost consciousness, and there was blood everywhere,” he said.

His bravery “managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN.

Machchhar is receiving medical care at a hospital in Saudi Arabia, according to the Indian embassy in Riyadh, and is in stable condition.

Parag Shah, who represents Ghatkopar East, the eastern Mumbai suburb Machchhar is from, told CNN that the pilot was “out of danger” after undergoing surgery on Wednesday, citing family members.

Celebrated as a hero

Born into a family in the textile business, becoming a pilot wasn’t Machchhar’s “childhood dream,” he told the Bona-Fide Banter podcast in 2025.

Initially, he’d enrolled in a textile engineering course after school.

“I finished the entire course, I still was young so wanted to (do) a little more studies,” he said.

Once he decided on flying, training took him to New Zealand, where he arrived aged around 19, in the southern city of Dunedin.

“He was always sort of a jovial young man and he tried hard,” his instructor at the time Philip Kean told CNN.

In a group photograph Kean shared from those days, Machchhar is easy to pick out. “He definitely got a smile of his own… he’s sort of a happy, happy chap,” said Kean, CEO of Mainland Air in Dunedin.

Before joining Flydubai, Machchhar spent 11 years with Indian carrier SpiceJet, rising to the position of Senior Commander, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Before Wednesday’s incident, one of the most unusual situations he had faced during his over 15 years of flying was the birth of a baby on board.

A woman on the plane, who was not at term, had started experiencing labor pains, Machchhar told the Bona-Fide Banter podcast. “Within 7-10 minutes, she was like, ‘captain this is now advancing toward a delivery.’”

Machchhar said he and the first officer started to check for the nearest airfields and conditions to make a safe landing. “Both the mother baby were fine,” he added.

Watching the news of Machchhar’s heroic actions on the Flydubai flight from New Zealand, his former instructor Kean was full of praise for the young man he had once taught.

“It was an amazing feat,” he told CNN.

“There could have been a whole airplane load of people wiped out in a matter of seconds, and luckily they got the door open… luckily he could hang on and save the day. Another half a minute would have been all over.”

“I’m very proud,” he said. “I’m very proud that he handled that situation… It’s great the way it turned out.”

Machchhar has become a national hero for two nations –– Israel, where most of the passengers hailed from, and his own home country, India.

“The pilot from Mumbai who proved to be a hero,” wrote the Times of India.

“Viewers, if 166 Israelis go home tonight without a scratch, it is all down to the bravery of one single Indian, Captain Smit Machchhar,” a CNN News-18 anchor said during his primetime program.

Speaking on the podcast last year how he felt to be a pilot, Machchhar’s answer was simple: “Blessed.”

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Additional reporting by Sandi Sidhu.