A Flydubai captain stabbed repeatedly by his co-pilot still forced open the cockpit door, an act he says kept 174 passengers from dying over Saudi Arabia.
Captain Smit Machchhar lay bleeding on the cockpit floor of the Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight when he felt the aircraft sink. Wounded in the arm, neck, and head, the Mumbai pilot made one final push, unlocked the door, and let help rush in before the plane could go down.
Passengers and two off-duty pilots dragged the Omani co-pilot out, bound his hands and feet, and restored control after a terrifying dive. The jet diverted to Tabuk in north-western Saudi Arabia. Machchhar later told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi he could not let everyone else die.
Israeli officials are treating the attack as a likely radicalization case aimed at crashing the packed airliner. The captain’s own words, a passenger’s filmed account, and flight data now fill in how close the flight came to catastrophe.
Daily Mail reporting captured Machchhar’s hospital-bed account from Abu Dhabi. He described collapsing under the assault, then realizing the door was his only chance.
“I fell to the floor and felt that the plane was sinking. I knew that if I could give one last push and open the door, I could save everyone,” he said. “At that moment I was fighting for my life. It was a moment when I realised that if I didn’t act... because I was already wounded, I had many wounds... I had to do something.”
He kept going. “I said to myself at that moment: if I don’t get up... while I was lying on the floor I could feel the plane sinking... the door was right there. Even though I was beaten, I managed to open it.”
“Everyone took an equal part in this. What I did was to save my life, but at the same time I knew I couldn’t let everyone else die.”
Just The News carried more of that cockpit recollection. Machchhar said he had suffered so many wounds he had fallen, yet still heard the aircraft going down and knew one last push was required.
Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister’s office, told Reuters the captain used the last of his strength on the release. “The last moments of his energy, he used to click open the release on the door,” the New York Post reported.
Dr. Shota Musaev, a 47-year-old Georgian Jewish dentist flying as a passenger, said the trip had been smooth until the jet dropped hard. He first thought it was turbulence and started filming.
“Exactly half a minute later, we heard noises from the front: shouting, and a woman screaming, ‘Knife! Knife!’” Musaev said. “That was when I got up. I realised it was a terrorist attack and joined the people ahead of us, who were the first to rush into the cockpit and pull the terrorist out.”
A group of four men grabbed the attacker, dragged him out, and tied his hands and feet. Musaev said the co-pilot begged only one thing: “Kill me.”
Inside, blood covered the cockpit. “The pilot was losing a lot of blood,” Musaev said. “His arm was badly slashed, as was his neck, and he had a very deep wound at the back of his head.” With first-aid supplies effectively gone, they packed the wounds with cloth and kept Machchhar conscious.
Flightradar24 data cited in the coverage showed the aircraft plunged more than 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds. Other reporting put the drop near 16,000 feet before crews recovered control and made the emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. The flight carried 182 people.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacker was arrested in Saudi Arabia and is under interrogation. On Thursday he told Fox News the co-pilot had undergone Islamist radical indoctrination drawn from personal information, and that it looked very likely he meant to down the plane.
By Friday the picture, in Netanyahu’s words, was clearer: “The attacker underwent Islamist radicalisation. He came to crash the plane with all passengers on board. We are investigating whether he was sent, and whoever sent him will pay a very heavy price.”
He added that the radicalisation in the man’s background was “a pretty good clue,” while stressing he was not yet making final conclusions. Two Israeli security officials gave an initial assessment that the co-pilot likely acted alone, with the probe continuing.
The UAE state news agency said investigators were examining circumstances and motives, including “whether the incident was linked to any terrorist activity or purpose, or involved prior planning or direction.” An Emirati source told i24News that “Free Palestine” leaflets and publications were among the co-pilot’s belongings. Those claims remain under investigation, not settled fact.
Machchhar is an Indian national with deep time in the cockpit: about four years at Flydubai after 11 years at SpiceJet as a senior commander and line training captain, with more than 9,750 flying hours at the Indian carrier. He is married with two children.
Breitbart reported his first extended public account came in a video call with Prime Minister Modi after the attack on Flydubai Flight FZ1073. Still bandaged, with a tube in his nose, Machchhar said he recited the Hanuman Chalisa through the assault.
“Whenever I feel afraid, only one thing comes to mind, to recite the Hanuman Chalisa, even at that time I was only reciting. God alone will save me,” he said. He also told Modi, “Lord Hanuman gave me courage,” and apologized for crying: “I feel so proud of myself, sorry for crying in front of you.”
Modi answered, “If you don’t get emotional in front of me, in front of whom will you?” The prime minister later framed the episode as proof that Indians risk their lives to save others rather than take them. Machchhar, for his part, refused to treat the wounds as a dead end. “I am looking at it as a journey which is slowly going on and will take time but I am confident that the recovery will be there and I will become fit and healthy again.”
Footage after the landing showed the wounded captain stretchered out and the restrained co-pilot bloodied, head bowed, hands tied. Off-duty pilots helped bring the jet down safely in Saudi Arabia. No passenger deaths from a crash were reported, because the crash never came.
Courage in a blood-soaked cockpit stopped what officials say looked like a deliberate mass-murder attempt. Free societies still depend on men willing to crawl for the latch when ideology turns a flight deck into a weapon.
