Indian pilot tells Modi he opened flydubai cockpit door — SkimNews
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- Smit Machchhar, an Indian pilot with 17 years of flying experience, was stabbed by his co-pilot on a flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday, and the jet carrying 174 people plunged nearly 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds.
- Machchhar recounted to PM Modi in a nearly 10-minute video call from an Abu Dhabi hospital that he forced open the cockpit door while covered in blood on the floor, allowing passengers and crew to overpower the co-pilot.
- Modi praised Machchhar's presence of mind, saying it saved lives and the reputation of Indian pilots; Machchhar, from Modi's home state of Gujarat, said he recited a Hindu prayer to the monkey god Hanuman during the ordeal.
- A second pair of flydubai pilots took control after the attacker was subdued and landed the aircraft in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
- Machchhar appeared in the released video with a tube in his nose and bandages on his head and hands, wiping away tears as he described what he called a divine intervention.
Why it matters: The co-pilot's alleged attempt to crash a commercial airliner was stopped only because Captain Machchhar, despite being stabbed and bleeding on the cockpit floor, forced open the door so crew could intervene. Modi's personal video call—rather than a routine statement—signals the political sensitivity of an Indian captain's role in a security breach on a UAE carrier bound for Israel.
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