‘A true hero’: Netanyahu praises Indian pilot for saving lives of 174 people on flydubai plane
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hails the Indian flydubai pilot attacked by his copilot on the plane full of Israelis this morning, calling him a “true hero” and wishing him a full recovery from his wounds.
“My salute to the Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his extraordinary bravery. Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster,” Netanyahu writes on X.
“He saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals. I wish Captain Machchhar a speedy and full recovery. He is a true hero,” the premier says.
Omani pilot who tried to crash flydubai plane said to be a religious extremist
The Omani pilot who allegedly tried to crash a flydubai plane full of Israeli passengers earlier today is described by a fellow pilot as a religious extremist.
The pilot tells Israel’s Channel 16 news that the Omani national joined flydubai just eight months ago.
“He prayed excessively throughout the day and refused to shake hands with women,” the pilot tells the network.
Flydubai passenger hails ‘miracles’ of heroic Israelis and off-duty pilots aboard hijacked plane
Lital Shahar, a passenger on the flydubai plane that landed safely this evening in Tel Aviv, says two miracles saved her life along with the lives of her four girls and many of the Israelis aboard.
“It was so scary to death on the plane. I felt sick. There are no words to describe what we experienced. Imagine I’m a mother and had my four girls next to me,“ Shahar from Givat Shmuel tells The Times of Israel. “We were sitting fairly toward the front in row 10, so we were very close and could hear people screaming that there was a stabbing.”
“There were two miracles — that Israelis were on the plane who heroically went into the cockpit… and that there were off-duty pilots onboard who could land the plane in Saudi Arabia,” Shahar recounts with great relief.
Shahar expresses her gratitude for the warm welcome that passengers received at Saudi Arbai’s Tabuk airport after the flydubai flight succeeded in making an emergency landing.
“We immediately felt safe because they were really amazing and generous,” says Shahar. “So many soldiers and nurses and doctors. They all spoke English and helped us.”
“They didn’t stop saying, ‘You are in a safe place now,’” says Shahar.
Yaniv, the Israeli who helped subdue the suspected flydubai hijacker, says he knew how to act thanks to having watched episodes of the Air Disasters TV show that investigates notable aviation crises.
Yaniv tells Channel 12 that after the plane began to nosedive, he realized that nobody was in the cockpit to control the two steering levers.
He says he learned from Air Disasters that you’re supposed to pull the levers in order to fly the plane upward.
Assaf Rajwan, another of the three Israelis who helped subdue the copilot aboard the flydubai plane this morning, says they “decided it was a case of to be or not to be.”
He says he was injured in the incident “but not too badly.”
Speaking to Channel 12 news on his return to Ben Gurion Airport, he says passengers heard shouting from the cockpit, and the plane spiralled out of control. The cockpit door was open and he and the two other Israelis went in, together with members of the crew, and overcame the copilot. He praises the plane’s captain and the two off-duty pilots on board who subsequently managed to stabilize the plane.
“We kept the terrorist neutralized for 55 minutes,” Rajwan adds, “and we landed safely.”
He says passengers were extremely reluctant to board another flydubai plane for the journey home, and did “not get clear answers” from Israeli authorities. They asked that the plane be delayed while checks were carried out on the second plane’s crew, and this is what happened.
He says he is “in shock — I can’t believe I was in Thailand a few hours ago… on a family vacation.”
“I thank God… and everybody who helped” enable them to survive the incident, Rajwan says, stressing that it was not him alone who did so.
“Life is stronger than everything, and we decided to fight for it,” he says. “It’s hard for me to believe that it ended the way it did… I’m very happy to be here.”
Flydubai captain seriously wounded by his copilot identified as Indian national
The flydubai captain who was attacked by his copilot while flying a plane full of Israelis has been identified as Indian national Smit Machchhar.
Machchhar was stabbed by his copilot, who is said to be an Omani national.
Machchhar lives in Dubai and has 13 years of experience as a pilot, including over four with flydubai, The Times of India reports.
After being attacked by his copilot, who allegedly tried to hijack and crash the plane, Machchhar was treated by Dr. Shota Musayev, an Israeli dentist on board.
Report: Israel currently believes flydubai pilot acted as ‘lone wolf’
Israel has no current indication that the attacker on this morning’s flydubai flight was directed by Iran or another organized entity, Channel 12 reports.
It appears the attacker was acting as a “lone wolf,” the network says.
Israeli passenger recounts to PM how he subdued flydubai attacker, helped stabilize plane
An Israeli passenger who helped subdue the attacker aboard this morning’s flydubai flight recounts to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu how he entered the cockpit, dragged the suspected assailant away from the controls and then helped stabilize the nosediving aircraft.
Meeting Netanyahu at Ben Gurion Airport after returning to Israel, the passenger, named as Yaniv, says he and another man forced their way into the cockpit, where the wounded pilot was lying near the door.
“When I went in, I saw the terrorist on the controls, between the two seats. There were no pilots in the seats,” he recounts. “I grabbed the terrorist, put him in a hold, and first of all pulled him outside,” he says.
Asked by Netanyahu what the alleged attacker had been doing, the passenger replies: “He was trying to destroy the controls in order to disable the plane.”
The passenger says he called other Israelis on the flight to help hold back the man before returning to the cockpit as the aircraft was tilting sharply.
“I jumped back in there, grabbed the controls, started pulling the controls,” he says, explaining that he pulled backward and quipping that he knew what to do because “I watch Mayday,” referring to a Canadian documentary television program that examines air crashes.
“The plane started leveling out a little more, and then the pilot told me he was taking over from there,” he says.
Footage taken by one of the Israelis on the flydubai rescue flight shows passengers cheering and singing as their plane touches down at Ben Gurion Airport after their earlier flight made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia due to an apparent attempt to hijack and crash the plane.
There are reportedly 174 Israelis on the rescue flight, which departed Saudi Arabia after six hours in Saudi Arabia. Some were given medical treatment in the terminal.
Some of the passengers were unwilling to board this second flydubai plane for the journey. Israel had wanted to send its own planes to bring them home, but the Saudi authorities refused.
Mossad officials approved the plane’s flight crew, and the passengers then agreed to board, Channel 12 reports.
Inside the Ben Gurion Airport terminal, the passengers and the relatives meeting them sing, “The people of Israel live,” amid hugs, cheers and clapping.
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