Netanyahu hails Indian pilot wounded in diverted flydubai flight
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‘Israel's’ leader credited the Indian pilot of a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight, as well as the aircraft's passengers, with averting catastrophe Wednesday after the man was attacked by his co-pilot, sparking a fight for control of the aircraft and forcing an emergency landing.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the co-pilot of the flydubai jet had been trying to crash it and kill all its passengers, with ‘Israel's’ foreign ministry denouncing the incident as "an attempted terrorist attack" aimed at damaging the relationship with the UAE.
Passengers gave a similar account of the incident, describing rushing the cockpit after the plane suddenly plummeted, losing around 17,000 feet of altitude in the span of a minute, according to the Flightradar24 website.
Flydubai said all the passengers -- of whom 166 out of 174 were ‘Israeli’, according to media reports -- were safe, adding that the reasons for the altercation were unknown.
AFPTV images later showed another flydubai plane carrying the passengers touch down at Tel Aviv airport, hours after their initial flight was diverted to Saudi Arabia's Tabuk.
My salute to the Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his extraordinary bravery.
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) September 30, 2026
Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air…
"During the flight, as they approached the country, one of the pilots stabbed the other pilot, and apparently tried to crash the plane with everyone on board," Netanyahu said in a video message.
"I salute these heroes," he said of the passengers, adding "they prevented a major disaster".
He later hailed the pilot who was wounded -- identified as Indian national Smit Machchhar -- "for his extraordinary bravery", praising him for fighting back despite being wounded and "preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster".
The Indian embassy said Machchhar was being treated at a Saudi hospital, while the company operating the airport in Tabuk said the co-pilot was also found to be injured upon landing.
Footage shared by the premier's office on Wednesday evening showed Netanyahu meeting the passengers of the flight at Tel Aviv airport and embracing a man in a bloodied shirt.
"Is that from him (the assailant)?" the premier asks, pointing at the stains, as the man replies in the affirmative.
