Captain Smit Machchhar: The ‘hero’ India pilot who was stabbed on Israel-bound flight

Flydubai’s flight FZ1073 took off from Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates at 03:05 GMT (07:05 local time) en route to Ben Gurion Airport in Israel.The flight was carrying at least 150 people, with Netanyahu saying “almost all” passengers were Israeli.The Israeli prime minister later wrote on X that Machchhar had “saved the lives of 174 people” and prevented “a catastrophic mid-air disaster”.Data from flight tracking website Flightradar24 shows the plane made a rapid descent over Saudi Arabia around two and a half hours after take-off, dropping more than 17,000ft (5,000m) in less than two minutes at around 05:21.Minutes later, the plane signalled an emergency code – squawk 7700 – before switching it to a squawk 7500 code, which indicates a hijacking.At 05:40, the plane – which had briefly entered Jordanian airspace – looped back into Saudi Arabia, where it later started its manual descent for landing.Less than an hour later, the plane returned to squawk 7700.Initial local media reports cited Israeli officials as saying a fight had broken out between two pilots.But speaking on Wednesday after the incident, Netanyahu confirmed later reports that one pilot had stabbed the other before “apparently trying to crash” the plane.He said an Israeli passenger told him “the plane went into a spin and began to descend” before the passenger and a crew member broke into the cockpit and overpowered the “pilot who had carried out the stabbing”.The plane was diverted to Tabuk Airport in north-western Saudi Arabia and touched down at 06:58, according to location data.The stabbed pilot, who has since been airlifted to Abu Dhabi, was later identified as Machchhar. The Indian embassy in the United Arab Emirates said he was “in good health and recovering well”.In his call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Machchhar said he had been flying planes for 17 years and “can tell what is happening to the plane even with my eyes closed”.Speaking about his recovery, the pilot said he is “looking at it as a journey” – saying that it “will take time” but he is “confident that the recovery will be there and I will become fit and healthy again”.