“I couldn’t let all those people die.” Speaking from a hospital bed is Smit Machchhar, the “hero pilot” who prevented the hijacking of the Flydubai flight. Machchhar was stabbed by his Omani co-pilot, who attempted to crash the plane, but reacted and avoided the worst. Still with obvious injuries and in need of care, he recounted those tragic moments during a video call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The video of the conversation was posted on Modi’s X profile.
The tale of the hero pilot
“I had a lot of injuries, but I told myself that I had to get up and take action. At that moment, I pushed myself beyond my limits to open the cockpit door,” Machchhar said during the video call with Modi.
In fact, the pilot said he opened the cockpit door while he was on the ground still under attack by his co-pilot. “When I fell, I felt the plane crash. At that moment I found the strength to open the cabin door. I was fighting for my life. I realized that if I didn’t show courage, 170 passengers would die.”
An unforgettable conversation with Captain Smit, filled with pride and emotions. pic.twitter.com/CCf46PKOWR
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 2, 2026
The investigations
The reconstruction is now quite clear: the co-pilot of the flight that left Dubai and headed for Tel Aviv attacked the commander, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in the Saudi city of Tabuk. Only the reaction of the pilot, but also of the passengers stopped the attack.
“We know that the aggressor pilot has undergone radical Islamist indoctrination over the last year. In the next few days we will know definitively whether there are links to Iran,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News, revealing that the man, once immobilized, would have shouted to kill him: “It is clear that he intended to commit suicide, to crash the plane.” A thesis, that of the radicalization of the man, also reported by some Israeli media, according to which anonymous officials explained how the attacker also incited the killing of Jews on his social profiles. The hypothesis that is strengthening, therefore, is that the man acted for “nationalistic motives” and probably as a “lone wolf”.