The New Zealand-trained Indian airline captain who helped thwart an apparent attempt to crash a FlyDubai flight said he had to get back on his feet to save passengers after being stabbed by his co-pilot.
Smit Machchhar was wounded on the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, Israel, as the plane suddenly plunged more than 4000 metres in about a minute.
“I had so many wounds. I had fallen down,” Machchhar said from a hospital in Abu Dhabi on a video call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Omani national stabbed the pilot and tried to bring down the plane. (Source: 1News)
“I was fighting for my life. At one point I realised that if I didn’t get up … then passengers would lose their lives.”
Machchhar was seriously injured in the 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.
Machcchar trained at Mainland Air in Dunedin for about 18 months in 2008 before returning to India to continue his aviation career.
The flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, with 182 people on board, was diverted to Tabuk in northwestern Saudi Arabia for an emergency landing.
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.
Israel was set to begin repatriation flights to bring back passengers stranded in the United Arab Emirates after commercial travel between the two countries was suspended following the attack.
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