OAN Staff Addie Davis
1:48 PM – Friday, October 2, 2026
The flydubai pilot who is credited with preventing a hijacking of flight FZ 1073, most likely saving the more than 170 people onboard, described the harrowing attack.
Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, related the attempted hijacking in a Friday video call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“At that moment, I was fighting for my life. But there was a moment when I realized, I had so many wounds. I had fallen down,” he said, according to a transcript provided by the Associated Press.
“At one point, I realized that if I didn’t get up…then passengers would lose their lives,” he told Modi, per the AP.
The co-pilot reportedly stabbed Machchhar during the Wednesday flight from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Tel Aviv. Despite his injuries, the captain said he managed to open the door to allow others into the cabin to subdue the attacker.
“When I was on the ground, I realized that the aircraft is going down. And I told myself, ‘this is the last push, Smit. The door is right there,’” he said. “And I was still getting hit, but I opened the door and others came.”
On Wednesday, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Yaniv Hayoun, who said he and another person – who he assumed was another pilot – forced their way into the cockpit, followed by other passengers, to subdue the attacker.
In a statement, a flydubai spokesperson said on-duty crew onboard “successfully secured” the plane and “diverted and landed the aircraft” in Saudi Arabia, where all passengers were safe and accounted for.
“Your bravery, your courage and your quick thinking, your decision in that fraction of a second helped saved so many lives,” Modi told Machchhar, per the transcript provided by the AP.
In a social media post on Thursday, Modi compared the thwarted hijacking to what could have been an attack on the scale of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.
“Without fearing for his own life, he fought valiantly and prevented another 9/11 like attack from happening,” Modi said. “140 crore [1.4 billion] Indians salute Captain Smit and are praying for his well-being.”
Sources have described the co-pilot as an Omani national, according to media reports.
According to Netanyahu, he had undergone “Islamist radicalization” and wanted “to crash the plane with all its passengers on board.”
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