Wounded FlyDubai captain recounts fight to save passengers
Posted October 2, 2026 5:36 am.
Last Updated October 2, 2026 11:44 am.
The Indian airline captain who helped thwart an apparent attempt to crash a FlyDubai flight said in a live video call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he knew he had to get back on his feet to save passengers after being stabbed by his co-pilot and the aircraft plunged into a steep descent.
“I had so many wounds. I had fallen down,” Capt. Smit Machchhar said from a hospital in Abu Dhabi. “I was fighting for my life. At one point I realized that if I didn’t get up … then passengers would lose their lives.”
Machchhar was seriously injured in Wednesday’s attack but managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers to enter and restrain the attacker as the Boeing 737 descended sharply, witnesses and Israeli authorities said.
“I’ve been flying for the last 17 years and I’ve been a captain for the last 11 years. And even if I shut my eyes, I know what is happening in the plane,” Machchhar said to Modi.
“When I was on the ground I knew that the aircraft was falling and I knew in that moment [I told myself] ‘one last push Smit, just do it, the door is right there’ and even at that time he was attacking me and then I just opened it and then everybody came – everybody else also played an equal role in this.”
For the 182 passengers on board, most of them Israelis, the first signs of trouble came more than two hours into the flight when the aircraft suddenly dropped down to 16,600 feet — the sharpest drop in altitude recorded by data tracking platforms.
Seconds later, it ascended to 21,725 feet before soon dropping back to 15,000 feet, which it maintained until safely landing more than an hour later.
Soon after leveling off, the plane dispatched its first distress signal, Squawk 7700, a code for general emergency, while flying along the Saudi-Jordanian border. It then sent a second distress signal, 7500, for “unlawful interference,” indicating something more serious like a hijacking attempt or an attack. It lasted for nearly an hour.
About 15 minutes after the second distress call, the aircraft turned west, briefly entering Jordanian airspace, then made a 180-degree turn and headed southwest to Tabuk, where it eventually landed, nearly four hours after taking off from Dubai.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacker, an Omani national, was arrested in Saudi Arabia. His motive for the attack was not immediately clear. A regional investigation is underway.
Authorities in Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and beyond are grappling with the fallout from the incident on Wednesday. The attack has raised questions about the state of aviation security and further unsettled a Middle East already shaken by the ongoing U.S.-Iran war.
The UAE has canceled all flights to Israel, complicating travel for hundreds of passengers who fly between the countries on a typical day.
Israel and the UAE agreed on the repatriation flights, beginning on Friday, according to an Israeli official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Earlier, the national carrier El Al said the UAE was holding up the necessary landing permits to allow it to fly into Dubai.
The Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv listed carriers Arkia and Israir with flights scheduled to arrive from Dubai late Friday and early Saturday. El Al was expected to fly passengers from Dubai to Israel on Sunday.
Dubai has been a popular destination for Israelis since Israel and the United Arab Emirates established ties in 2020 as part of the Trump administration’s Abraham Accords to normalize ties between Israel and Arab countries.
With files from Sam Mednick And Aamer Madhani, The Associated Press and Dilshad Burman, CityNews
