‘I couldn’t let everybody else die,’ says hero Flydubai pilot Smit Machchhar

CNN

By Rhea Mogul, Ayushi Shah, CNN

(CNN) — Smit Machchhar, the hero Flydubai captain who fought off a savage attack by his copilot, kept fighting because he could not “let everybody else die,” he said in his first public remarks since Wednesday’s suspected hijacking attempt.

“In that moment, I was fighting for my life,” Machchhar told India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a video call on Friday. “I was so severely wounded that I had fallen down… at that time, I was thinking what if I don’t get up?”

A horrific mid-air catastrophe on flight FZ 1073 heading to Tel Aviv was averted in a stunning turn of events on Wednesday when passengers bravely rushed into the cockpit and stand-in pilots regained control of the aircraft.

In a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening, Machchhar said that the copilot told him mid-flight that he needed to step aside to pray. The pilot said he didn’t consider the request unusual, since observant Muslims pray five times a day. But after a few minutes, Machchhar felt a strong blow to the back of his head.

“My first thought was that there was a catastrophic damage to the aircraft,” Machchhar said in a video released by Netanyahu’s office. “But then after that, the blows kept coming – one after the other. And that’s when I realized that it’s not the aircraft, it’s the other guy who was in the cockpit with me.”

Machchhar was badly injured while trying to fend off his attacker. Images showed a gruesome scene onboard, with blood splashed across the cockpit and the seriously wounded pilot lying on the floor, his pained face partially covered with a mask.

Machchhar told Modi he was on the ground in the cockpit when he realized the plane was going down.

“And I knew in that moment – one last push, Smit! Just do it. The door is right there,” he said. “And even at that time, he was beating me up.”

Machchhar told Netanyahu that he had opened the cockpit door once but believes the copilot closed it. Machchhar managed to wrest it open again, which allowed the passengers to flood in and subdue the attacker.

“I was doing this for my life,” Machchhar told Modi, “but at the same time, I knew that I couldn’t let everybody else die.”

Modi praised Machchhar’s heroics, telling the veteran pilot that his “courage, patience and quick thinking… saved the lives of so many people.”

“You yourself were fighting the battle of life and death,” Modi said.

During their call, Netanyahu invited Machchhar and Modi to light a ceremonial flame during the country’s Independence Day celebrations next spring – a high honor usually reserved for esteemed Israeli citizens.

“You’re a hero of Israel, you’re a hero of India, you’re a hero of the entire world,” Netanyahu said.

Machchhar is recovering at a hospital in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He was initially treated for his injuries in Saudi Arabia, where the diverted plane was forced to make an emergency landing.

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

His bravery “managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster,” Netanyahu told CNN on Wednesday.

Machchhar appeared emotional in the call with Modi while recalling the ordeal, and apologized to the prime minister for crying on the phone.

The two later spoke in Gujarati, the language predominantly spoken by people from India’s western state of Gujarat, which is where Modi is from.

Machchhar said his daughter had come to visit him in hospital but got scared seeing him in his condition. His youngest son, who is two, has not been able to meet him yet, he said.

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.

Speaking to Modi, Machchhar said he felt a sense of pride.

“Now that you have called me, I am really really proud of myself,” Machchhar said. “I wasn’t proud before this, but now I am.”

His wife, Sonal Machchhar, told CNN affiliate CNN News18 that the family had not asked him yet about what happened because “we don’t want him to get flashbacks of the incident.”

“We want him to fully recover, and I’m sure once he is in the right space to talk, he will share it with everyone of how the incident went on with him,” Sonal Machchhar said.

This story had been updated with additional details.

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