US president Donald Trump and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi hailed the “hero” pilot who saved passengers from an attempted hijacking.
Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, fought off his co-pilot who stabbed him during an attempted midair attack on a flight to Israel.
Trump said he spoke to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the incident. He hailed Cpt Machchhar as a "hero" for fighting off the knife attack from the co-pilot, opening the cockpit door, and calling for help to foil a bid to crash the aircraft.
"I did speak to Bibi Netanyahu at length about this event, and it seems as though the co-pilot was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack-job, and he stabbed the pilot," he told reporters in the Oval Office.
“The pilot was in very bad shape; I guess he still is in very bad shape," Trump said.
Modi said “India is proud of Captain Machchhar” as he wished for his speedy recovery.
“In the face of the gravest danger and despite being seriously injured, he showed immense courage and an unwavering resolve to protect the lives of others. His valour helped save hundreds of lives and avert a great tragedy.”
S Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister, wrote: “Captain Smit Machchhar’s extraordinary courage and remarkable presence of mind, even in the face of grave danger, saved hundreds of lives yesterday and averted a major tragedy.”
Captain Smit Machchhar’s extraordinary courage and remarkable presence of mind, even in the face of grave danger, saved hundreds of lives yesterday and averted a major tragedy.
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) October 1, 2026
Join the countless voices from across the world in saluting his valour and praying for his speedy…
Netanyahu praised Cpt Machchhar as a "true hero" for fighting back during the commercial flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
"My salute to the Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his extraordinary bravery," Netanyahu posted on X. "Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker."
Cpt Machchhar, who is of Gujarati origin from the Indian city of Mumbai, was set to join his family's textile business. He enrolled in a textile engineering course, before discovering his love of flying at an aviation seminar during management studies at Mumbai's Welingkar Institute of Management, aged about 19.
"That's where the aviation bug… really found me," he told Zalak Mehta, host of a YouTube channel, in a 2025 interview, adding that his mother was initially frightened by the career choice.
He went on to train in New Zealand before joining the Indian airline SpiceJet, where he spent more than a decade, rising to become a line training captain responsible for mentoring younger pilots and logging more than 9,500 flying hours, including over 6,400 as pilot-in-command, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He joined Flydubai as a direct entry captain in June 2022, and has since logged nearly 9,750 flying hours in total across the Boeing 737-800 and 737 Max, over a career spanning about 15 years.
In the 2025 interview, Machchhar said he had always prioritised passenger safety over punctuality. "Delay is not my problem. As long as you're walking out of the aircraft is what I want," he said.
He also said he kept his professional life separate from his personal one.
"When I get out of the cockpit or the aircraft, I don't want the other guy to know that I'm a pilot," he said.
"I don't want to discuss aviation. When I wear the uniform, then no nonsense and just do your job, finish the job. When you walk out of the cockpit, that's it. Stop thinking about that. Someone else needs you now. The kids are there. They want to play with you."
The attack unfolded on Wednesday morning, roughly two and a half hours into Flydubai Flight FZ1073.
As the Boeing 737 crossed into Jordanian airspace, Cpt Machchhar’s co-pilot launched an attack inside the cockpit and attempted to sabotage the flight controls to crash the airliner, officials said. The aircraft plunged an extraordinary 14,000ft in less than 30 seconds.
Despite bleeding heavily after sustaining multiple severe stab wounds, Israeli officials said Cpt Machchhar was able to hit the cockpit's door release mechanism before collapsing.
Several passengers then charged forward to breach the unlocked flight deck, joining crew members to physically restrain the attacker on the floor.
"My daughter heard screaming and saw a man with a knife put the pilot on the floor, with blood everywhere," said passenger Yasmin Abu Kasis. "The plane started to lose control, so all the people were screaming."
Meital, a passenger whose husband attempted to help, told Israel’s Channel 12: "There were stabbings and a lot of blood. My husband rushed to the front of the plane, and ... neutralised the terrorist."
Another passenger, Almog Itali, said an off-duty British pilot helped to rescue the plane and executed an emergency landing at Tabuk Airport in northeastern Saudi Arabia.
In a short translated clip on the BBC, Itali said: “There were two pilots in the front, one stabbed the other, and there were two spare pilots who were supposed to operate the next flight.
“The relief pilots are European, one of them British, who entered (the cockpit) and pulled the aircraft up, pulled the yoke, stabilised the plane and landed us in Saudi Arabia.”
Local authorities arrested the suspect on the tarmac immediately after touchdown. Both pilots were then hospitalised in Tabuk, where the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia has since confirmed Cpt Machchhar underwent emergency surgery and is in stable condition.
Netanyahu added that Cpt Machchhar "saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals", wishing him a full recovery.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz described the incident as an attempted “jihadist terrorist attack” and said the suspect intended to crash the plane with everyone on board.
In response, Netanyahu has ordered security services to immediately tighten screening protocols across all domestic and international carriers entering Israeli airspace.
The 174 passengers were later flown from Tabuk to Ben Gurion Airport on a replacement aircraft sent by Flydubai, where they were reunited with emotional family members late Wednesday evening.
The Israeli prime minister personally met with several of the returning passengers on the tarmac at Ben Gurion, praising their courage and thanking them for intervening.
Flydubai has confirmed that formal investigations into the attacker's underlying motives remain ongoing.
