‘I couldn’t let everybody else die,’ says hero Flydubai pilot Smit Machchhar

Flydubai Captain Describes Fight to Prevent Disaster on Tel Aviv-Bound Flight

Activelifezero.com – Captain Smit Machchhar has spoken publicly for the first time after surviving a violent confrontation in the cockpit of Flydubai flight FZ 1073, saying his determination to continue fighting came from the knowledge that other lives depended on him.

The aircraft, which was traveling to Tel Aviv on Wednesday, was forced into an emergency diversion after what authorities suspect was an attempted hijacking. The flight landed in Saudi Arabia, where Machchhar received initial medical care before being transferred to a hospital in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Machchhar, a father of two, sustained severe injuries during the attack by his copilot. In a video call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, he recalled the moment when he feared he might no longer be able to stop the aircraft from descending.

“In that moment, I was fighting for my life,”

Machchhar told Modi that his wounds were so serious he had collapsed onto the cockpit floor. He said he began to question whether he would be able to rise again as the plane remained in danger.

“I was so severely wounded that I had fallen down… at that time, I was thinking what if I don’t get up?”

A final effort inside the cockpit

The crisis changed when Machchhar managed to reach the cockpit door and open it, allowing passengers to intervene. Several people rushed forward, restrained the alleged attacker and helped restore control of the aircraft alongside stand-in pilots.

Images from inside the plane showed blood across the cockpit and Machchhar lying badly injured on the floor, his face partly covered by a mask. The captain told Modi that, despite the pain and continuing assault, he focused on one final physical effort.

“And I knew in that moment – one last push, Smit! Just do it. The door is right there,”

He said the attacker continued striking him as he tried to reach the door.

“And even at that time, he was beating me up.”

Once the door was opened, help arrived quickly. Machchhar described the intervention as the decisive moment in preventing a far worse outcome for everyone on board.

“And then I just opened it… and then everybody came,”

He said his motivation went beyond his own survival.

“I was doing this for my life, but at the same time, I knew that I couldn’t let everybody else die.”

The episode underscores how quickly a flight-deck emergency can become a shared survival effort. While pilots carry primary responsibility for operating an aircraft, the actions of passengers and other crew members became central to ending the confrontation aboard FZ 1073. Their intervention enabled the aircraft to be stabilized and diverted for an emergency landing.

Recovery after massive blood loss

Machchhar remains in recovery in Abu Dhabi after suffering what fellow passenger and dentist Shota Musaev described as “massive blood loss.” Musaev was among those who helped care for the injured captain following the attack.

The medical consequences of the assault were severe, but Machchhar’s account has highlighted his continued awareness of the aircraft and the passengers even while injured. Indian Prime Minister Modi praised the captain during their call, describing his response as an act that protected many lives.

“Your courage, patience and quick thinking… saved the lives of so many people.”

Modi noted that Machchhar had been confronting a life-or-death struggle himself while trying to prevent a catastrophe.

“You yourself were fighting the battle of life and death,”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also praised Machchhar’s actions on Wednesday, saying the captain’s response had prevented what he described as a potential “9/11 disaster.”

An emotional call with India’s prime minister

The conversation with Modi was emotional for Machchhar, who apologized after becoming tearful while recounting the ordeal. At one point, the two spoke in Gujarati, the language widely spoken in India’s western state of Gujarat, where Modi is from.

Machchhar told the prime minister that his daughter had visited him in hospital but was frightened by the condition she found him in. His youngest son, aged two, has not yet been able to see him.

During the call, the captain said the recognition from India’s leader had given him a new sense of accomplishment.

“Now that you have called me, I am really really proud of myself,”

“I wasn’t proud before this, but now I am.”

Machchhar did not originally set out to become an aviator. Born into a family involved in the textile business, he said in a 2025 appearance on the Bona-Fide Banter podcast that flying had not been his childhood ambition. After finishing school, he first enrolled in a textile engineering program before eventually pursuing a career in aviation.

His actions on flight FZ 1073 have now placed that career at the center of an extraordinary emergency. As he continues his recovery, the account of the captain, the passengers and the replacement pilots offers a stark reminder of how courage, coordination and rapid decisions can matter during the most dangerous moments in the air.