First images of Captain Smit Machchhar emerging after the Flydubai cockpit emergency show the Indian pilot outside the aircraft, chest and abdomen heavily bandaged, before he was taken for further care.
Reports and video circulating on Thursday place him being airlifted from a hospital in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, to Abu Dhabi for specialised treatment following surgery.
The drama unfolded on Wednesday aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 carrying 174 passengers from Dubai to Tel Aviv. Roughly two and a half hours after departure, the aircraft transmitted emergency signals and lost altitude rapidly—Israeli officials and flight-tracking data described a plunge of roughly 14,000 to 16,000 feet in about a minute, from cruise levels near 33,000–34,000 feet.
According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and officials quoted by multiple outlets, the Omani first officer stabbed the captain and appeared to interfere with the controls in what was described as an attempt to bring the aircraft down. Machchhar, bleeding and later found on the cockpit floor, fought back long enough to activate the emergency door release. That single action let cabin crew, passengers—including an off-duty plumber among those later praised—and others enter the flight deck, overpower the attacker, and restrain him. Two other Flydubai pilots travelling as passengers then took control and diverted the jet to Tabuk, where it landed safely. Saudi authorities took the co-pilot into custody.
Netanyahu later called Machchhar “a true hero” for preventing “a catastrophic mid-air disaster.” Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the prime minister, said the captain used the “last moments of his energy” to open the door while lying bloodied on the floor.
Machchhar, an Indian national formerly based in Mumbai, joined Flydubai as a captain in June 2022 after more than 11 years with SpiceJet, where he served as a senior commander and line training captain. Accounts of his experience put his total flying time near 9,500–9,750 hours, the bulk on Boeing 737s. The Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia said earlier that he was stable and receiving treatment in Tabuk; family members were being kept informed. Flydubai arranged the subsequent airlift to the UAE.
The precise motive remains under investigation. The UAE Attorney General has ordered a probe to establish the facts, circumstances and whether the events were linked to terrorist activity, prior planning or external direction. Flydubai has cautioned against speculation while the inquiry continues. Israel scrambled fighters after the initial distress codes, which included signals associated with unlawful interference, but later assessments treated the episode as a cockpit attack rather than a conventional hijacking.
For the 174 people on board, the difference between a safe diversion and disaster came down to seconds inside a locked flight deck—and to a wounded captain who still reached the door release.
