Onlykashmir.in News Desk
An Indian pilot has been identified as the captain who helped prevent a flydubai passenger jet from crashing after his co-pilot allegedly tried to seize control of the aircraft during a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv. The account comes from Israeli media reports and an Israeli journalist, and several details remain unconfirmed.
The captain is named as Smit Machchhar, a Mumbai native based in Dubai. The incident occurred on Wednesday aboard flydubai Flight FZ1073, a Boeing 737. According to the reports, his Omani co-pilot attacked him with a knife in the cockpit as the aircraft approached the Israeli border, and tried to take control and bring the plane down. Witness accounts say the captain was stabbed repeatedly and was covered in blood, yet fought back during the struggle as the aircraft descended. The aircraft sent emergency signals before making an emergency landing at Tabuk in Saudi Arabia. Both pilots were rushed to hospital, and details of the captain’s condition were not immediately available. One passenger account described him as being in critical condition.
A passenger told the Jerusalem Post that Israeli passengers seated in the front rows entered the cockpit and confronted the co-pilot as the plane descended. The attacker was removed, and off-duty pilots travelling as passengers entered the cockpit, with one taking control of the aircraft. The passenger also said an Israeli dentist on board gave emergency treatment to the wounded captain, which helped save his life. More than 180 people were aboard, most of them Israelis.
Machchhar is an experienced commercial pilot. He has flown Boeing 737 aircraft for more than 13 years and has been a flydubai captain since June 2022. Before that he spent 11 years with SpiceJet, where he served as a senior commander and Line Training Captain from November 2020 to June 2022. He reportedly logged more than 9,500 hours there, including over 6,400 as pilot-in-command, with experience on the 737 NG and MAX, pilot training and mentoring, crew resource management, and flight standards and compliance. One report cites 9,750 hours on the 737-800 and 737 Max 8 and 9.
No official account of the motive or the exact sequence of events had been released at the time of writing.
