‘You can’t die like this’: Captain Smit Machchhar recalls co-pilot’s attack

DUBAI: Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar has described the moment he feared for his life during an attack by his co-pilot aboard a Flydubai flight, recalling how he urged himself to act to survive the ordeal. In a teaser for an exclusive interview with Sky News Arabia, Machchhar said he was still trying to recover from the traumatic experience. Asked whether there was a moment when he thought he might not survive, he recalled telling himself to do something rather than die without fighting back.

“I mean, I am trying to get over it now. But yes, there was a moment when I realised. I told myself that, Smit, do something. You can’t die like this,” he said. Clarifying what went through his mind at that moment, Machchhar said he had not accepted his death but had realised that he needed to act. “I’m not saying I accepted my death. It was like, do something, otherwise…” he said.

Machchhar also recalled the moment he managed to unlock the cockpit door despite being injured. “I remember being face down, and of course the panic which was there, the screaming which was there,” he said, describing the chaos outside the cockpit.
He praised the colleague who intervened during the crisis, describing the assistance as commendable and saying he would remember it for the rest of his life.

The attack occurred on September 30 aboard Flydubai flight FZ1073, which was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv with 174 people on board. The co-pilot, identified as Hamam al-Hammami, allegedly attacked Machchhar inside the cockpit while the aircraft was in Jordanian airspace.
Despite his injuries, Machchhar managed to unlock the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to intervene and subdue the attacker. Two off-duty pilots aboard the aircraft then helped stabilise the plane before it made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.
Machchhar’s account of the ordeal has emerged weeks after the incident, as he continues to recover from his injuries and trauma.