An Indian airline captain is being praised around the world after surviving a terrifying mid-air attack that forced his plane to divert. Capt Smit Machchhar was piloting a Flydubai flight carrying more than 170 passengers toward Tel Aviv on Wednesday when he was stabbed by another pilot on board. The aircraft went into a dive, and Machchhar, bleeding and still under attack, forced himself up from the floor to help bring the plane under control and open a cabin door. The flight was diverted to the city of Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where Machchhar was hospitalized.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called him a “true hero,” and Machchhar later described the ordeal directly to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a video call, recalling how he told himself to make “one last push” despite his injuries.
Machchhar, who grew up in Mumbai, trained at a New Zealand aviation school before joining Indian carrier SpiceJet in 2011 and later Dubai-based Flydubai in 2022. With more than 9,750 flight hours, including over 6,400 as pilot-in-command, colleagues describe him as calm under pressure and deeply disciplined. In a podcast last year, he spoke about balancing the demands of flying with family life, saying, “as long as you’re walking out of the aircraft safely, that’s what I want.”
Read the full story on BBC News.
Source: Who is the 'hero' Indian pilot who was stabbed on Israel-bound flight? (feeds.bbci.co.uk).
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