'You are a hero for Israel, India, and the entire world': Netanyahu tells Indian pilot who saved Flydubai flight | Video
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "'You are a hero for Israel, India, and the entire world': Netanyahu tells Indian pilot who saved Flydubai flight | Video")
This handout photograph released by the Israel's Foreign Ministry on September 30, 2026 shows Indian pilot Smit Machchhar, the captain of flydubai flight FZ 1073. Photograph: (AFP)
Netanyahu invited Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar and PM Modi to light a torch at Israel’s Independence Day ceremony after praising Machchhar as a hero for his courage during the Flydubai cockpit attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his courage during the Flydubai flight incident. Netanyahu said he wanted Machchhar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to light a flame at a national ceremony marking Israel's Independence Day next May, an honour he said is usually reserved for Israeli citizens.
During his conversation with Machchhar, the Israeli prime minister also asked him how the attack unfolded and heard a detailed account of what happened inside the cockpit.
"You are a hero for Israel, India, and the entire world. I invite you to light a torch on Israeli Independence Day," Netanyahu said in a video released by Israel PMO of his telephone conversation with the hospitalised captain.
Machchhar recounts cockpit ordeal
Asked how the attack unfolded, Machchhar said the co-pilot had asked to take time to pray, as devout Muslims do five times a day.
"A lot of locals, they do pray, which is not out of the ordinary. While he was praying, out of respect, I was just looking at the front and not at the back," Machchhar said.
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"Suddenly, after I think I would say about four to five minutes, there was a big blow to the back of my head. My first thought was that the aircraft had suffered catastrophic damage and that something was wrong.
"But then after that the blows kept coming one after the other. That's when I realised that it's not the aircraft, it's the other guy who was in the cockpit with me."
While his memory was not entirely clear due to his injuries, Machchhar said he managed to pull open the cockpit door, "but I think he shut it back closed."
"I had that one last fight left in me," Machchhar explained, saying he knew he faced certain death if he did not act.
"That's when I pushed against everything. I gave everything that I had and just went for the door and opened the door, and thankfully people were waiting."
UAE investigators said the co-pilot planned the "terrorist act" by attacking Machchhar with an axe.
Modi, UAE leadership praise pilot
Machchhar had earlier spoken with Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a video call. Modi praised his courage, presence of mind, and composure, and told him the entire country was praying for him.
Modi said India could proudly say that its people were not those who take lives, but those willing to risk their lives to save others.
Machchhar also told Modi that he recites the Hanuman Chalisa whenever he is in difficulty and had been reciting it during the incident.
The pilot is currently recovering in a UAE hospital. Dubai's Crown Prince, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, also visited him on Saturday and praised his courage following the mid-air cockpit attack.
