Indian flydubai captain Smit Machchhar, who survived a violent cockpit attack aboard flight FZ1073 on September 30, 2026, has broken his silence in a new interview released on October 17. Recalling the moment he realised he might not make it, Machchhar told the interviewer: "Yes, there was a moment that I realised... Smit, do something, you can't die like this." The teaser, released by Sky News Arabia ahead of an exclusive interview, is his most detailed public account yet of the mid-air ordeal that ended with an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
What happened on flight FZ1073
On September 30, 2026, flydubai flight FZ1073, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv with 174 people on board, descended more than 17,000 feet after violence erupted in the cockpit. According to UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif al-Shamsi, the Omani first officer, identified as Hammam al-Hammami, attacked Captain Machchhar with the cockpit's emergency crash axe in an alleged attempt to seize the aircraft.
UAE investigators say the 29-year-old co-pilot had planned a 9/11-style suicide attack, aiming to crash the aircraft into the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. The Attorney General said al-Hammami had been radicalised while studying in Australia, with signs of radicalisation emerging as early as 2017, and drew inspiration from the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"Smit, do something" - the captain's recall
In the interview teaser, Machchhar described the disbelief of being attacked by the person sitting beside him. "I mean, I'm trying to get over it now, but yes, there was a moment that I realised, and I told myself that, Smit, do something. You can't die like this," he said. "I'm not saying I accepted my death. It was like, do something, otherwise..."
Despite suffering a fractured skull and deep cuts to his head and hands, Machchhar managed to unlock the reinforced cockpit door, allowing passengers and a relief pilot to rush in and overpower the attacker. "I remember being face down, and of course the panic which was there, the screaming which was there," he recalled. He praised the colleague who took over the controls during the crisis, calling the actions something "I'll keep with me till I die." The aircraft was brought under control and diverted to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia, where it landed safely. No one died in the incident.
Fallout and investigations
flydubai has called the incident a "safety incident" on the flight deck and suspended all flights to and from Israel pending the investigation. India's National Investigation Agency has registered a case under the Anti-Hijacking Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and is seeking permission to send a team to the UAE to record Machchhar's statement. UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash called it a "terrorist act."
World leaders have praised the captain's bravery: Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Machchhar by video call from his hospital bed in Abu Dhabi, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel will honour him with the Presidential Award for Civilian Heroism for averting what he called a 9/11-like tragedy. Machchhar is currently recovering at a hospital in the UAE.
Watch: Flydubai pilot Smit Machchhar relives the cockpit attack in his first English-language interview (The National) - the captain recounts the terrifying events in the cockpit ahead of the full interview airing on October 17.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Lightless Dawn (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
The takeaway
Machchhar's account turns one of the most shocking aviation security incidents in recent years from an official investigation into a human story: an injured captain refusing to accept the worst outcome, a door opened at the decisive moment, and 174 people walking off an aircraft that might never have landed. The full interview airs on Sky News Arabia at 9 pm Abu Dhabi time (10:30 pm IST) on October 17.
Sources: The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Financial Express