Indian pilot hailed as hero recalls Flydubai cockpit attack
The Indian airline captain who helped thwart an apparent attempt to crash a Flydubai flight described on Friday how he fought for his life in the minutes after his co-pilot stabbed him and the plane began a steep descent.
Captain Smit Machchhar, recovering in an Abu Dhabi hospital, told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a televised video call that he knew he had to get back on his feet to save his passengers.
“I had so many wounds. I had fallen down,” he said from the hospital, his head bandaged and tubes in his nose, before breaking down as he recalled the attack.
“I was fighting for my life. At one point, I realised that if I didn’t get up … then passengers would lose their lives,” he told Modi.