Smit Machchhar, the hero Flydubai captain who fought off a savage attack by his co-pilot, kept fighting because he couldn’t “let everyone else die,” he said in his first public statements since Wednesday’s alleged kidnapping attempt. “At that time, I was fighting for my life,” Machchhar told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a video call on Friday. “I was so seriously injured that I had fallen… at that moment, I was thinking what if I don’t get up?” A horrific mid-air catastrophe on Tel Aviv-bound flight FZ 1073 was averted in a surprising turn of events on Wednesday when passengers bravely rushed to the cockpit and standby pilots regained control of the plane. Machchhar was seriously injured while trying to fend off the attacker. Footage shows a gruesome scene on board, with blood splattered across the cockpit and the seriously injured pilot lying on the ground, his pained face partially covered by a mask. Machchhar told Modi that he was on the ground in the cockpit when he realized the plane was going down. “And I knew at that moment: one last push, Smit! Just do it. The door is right there,” he said. “And even then, he was hitting me.” “And then I just opened it… and then they all came,” he said, referring to several other passengers who then rushed into the cabin and grabbed their attacker. “I was doing this for my life, but at the same time I knew I couldn’t let everyone else die.” Modi praised Machchhar’s heroic acts, telling the veteran pilot that his “courage, patience and quick thinking… saved the lives of so many people.” “You yourself were fighting the battle of life and death,” Modi said. Machchhar is recovering in a hospital in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. He initially received treatment for his injuries in Saudi Arabia, where the diverted plane was forced to make an emergency landing. The father of two had suffered “massive blood loss” and was “seriously injured,” dentist Shota Musaev, a passenger on the flight who helped treat him, previously told CNN. Their bravery “managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN on Wednesday. Machchhar appeared emotional on the call with Modi as he recalled the ordeal and apologized to the Prime Minister for crying over the phone. The two later spoke in Gujarati, the language predominantly spoken by people from India’s western state of Gujarat, where Modi is from. Machchhar said his daughter had come to see him at the hospital but was scared to see him in his condition. His youngest son, two years old, has not yet been able to join him, he said. Born into a textile business family, becoming a pilot was not Machchhar’s “childhood dream,” he told the Bona-Fide Banter podcast in 2025. Initially, he had enrolled in a textile engineering course after school. Talking to Modi, Machchhar said he felt pride. “Now that they have called me, I am very proud of myself,” Machchhar said. “I wasn’t proud before this, but I am now.” This story has been updated with additional details.
