The Consulate of Israel launched a public awareness campaign across major roadways in Mumbai to express gratitude to honour Captain Machchhar’s valour.
Billboards have been put up at the Warden Road and Napean Sea Road junction, near the Prabodhankar Thackeray flyover on the Western Express Highway in Bandra East, the BKC-Sion connector, the Andheri-Jogeshwari flyover, and Tulsi Pipeline Road near Mahim, bearing the message, “Thank You, Captain Smit, For Saving Israeli Lives! Wishing You a Speedy Recovery.”
Consul General Yaniv Revach, present at the display on the Western Express Highway in Bandra, said, “Captain Smit activated emergency alerts and successfully opened the cockpit door despite sustaining severe wounds to his neck and hands. The State of Israel and its citizens are deeply grateful to Captain Smit and 4 Israeli passengers on board who saved 174 lives. Captain Smit has become a hero in both India and Israel. Our immediate priority is his complete recovery, after which we look forward to welcoming him to Israel to officially honour his courage.”
According to the media release, Mr. Revach drew a parallel with the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, when Sandra Samuel, an Indian nanny, saved young Moshe Holtzberg, saying this reflected a shared cultural value placed on preserving innocent life in Indian and Jewish traditions.
He said the situation could have precipitated a “complex diplomatic crisis” had Captain Machchhar been unable to open the cockpit door, and cautioned against what he called speculative narrative-building by some media outlets that might misrepresent facts or strain relations among Israel, the UAE and India, naming Qatar and Al Jazeera as examples he said were inciting public opinion against Israel and Jewish people.
Mr. Revach also said, according to the release, that the UAE government had invited Israeli authorities to join the investigation. “We trust that a thorough investigation will bring full clarity to the events, though the possibility of a lone-wolf attack cannot be ruled out,” he said, adding that joint efforts remained crucial in addressing online and media-driven radicalisation.
He said he had personally conveyed his wishes and prayers to Captain Machchhar’s family, and that the act of bravery had deepened the bond of friendship between the people of India and Israel.
On Wednesday (September 30, 2026), a flydubai Boeing 737-8 MAX flight, FZ 1073, had an in-flight incident while en route from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Tel Aviv, Israel, a sector of more than 2,100 km, usually covered in three hours.
The aircraft was diverted to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia and landed safely despite extensive damage. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that one pilot stabbed the other and “apparently tried to crash the plane.” Most of the 174 passengers on board were Israelis, including 27 children. Flydubai suspended all flights to and from Israel, and an investigation has begun.
The pilot who was attacked, an Indian national, was identified as Captain Smit Machchhar. He had joined the aviation industry with SpiceJet in June 2011 and worked there for more than 11 years, before joining flydubai as a captain in 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Media reports said an altercation broke out between the two flight crew members, with one pilot stabbed. Amid the commotion on the flight deck, the aircraft squawked the transponder codes 7700 and 7500, used globally to signal an emergency and a possible hijacking or “unlawful interference,” which may have prompted Saudi Arabia and Israel to scramble fighter jets.
The Boeing 737, flying at about 34,000 feet, made a sudden descent to about 19,000 feet before levelling off at about 15,000 feet, about two and a half hours into the flight. The jet briefly entered Jordanian airspace before looping back to Saudi Arabia and landing at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk, a civil-military airfield that is also the base of the Royal Saudi Air Force Wing 7.
Ground images showed the aircraft’s rudder was substantially damaged, with a large part of it missing; passengers were seen deboarding using a step ladder from Saudi Ground Services, the ground handling agency.
Flydubai incident | Complete coverage
According to Israeli officials, Captain Machchhar, covered in blood on the cockpit floor, managed to activate the release to open the cockpit door. This allowed passengers to enter and overpower his co-pilot, while two off-duty flydubai pilots who were travelling as passengers helped secure the aircraft and carry out the landing.
Briefs by Reuters and The Times of Israel, attributing the account to a Netanyahu spokesperson, Doron Spielman, said the captain, “who was bloodied and lying on the floor, had drawn on the last moments of his energy to click open the release on the cockpit door,” after which passengers who realised something was wrong rushed in and found the co-pilot “standing over the control panel, bashing the control panel.”
Some reports cited a pocket 8as the weapon used; others cited the flight deck’s crash axe. A senior Boeing pilot told The Hindu the crash axe, a mandatory aircrew safety tool normally stored near the pilot seats for emergency use, is “in plain sight” and meant to be accessed quickly.
A video clip from aviation sources, shared with The Hindu, showed both pilots on the cabin floor, bleeding profusely, with bloodstains on the cabin wall; one pilot was seen in a blood-soaked shirt with epaulettes, the other with an oxygen mask, as some passengers nearby asked for the filming to stop.
The passengers later reached Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport aboard a replacement aircraft. In a video released by Mr. Netanyahu’s office, he was seen hugging a passenger identified as Yaniv, who helped steady the situation after the stabbing and the sudden drop in altitude; Yaniv was quoted by i24NEWS as crediting his intervention to having watched the Canadian television series Mayday (also known as Air Crash Investigation), which documents air mishaps.
Captain Machchhar has been hailed as a “hero” by leaders including President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump.
Mr. Modi, in a post on X on October 1, 2026, said, “Captain Smit Machchhar is a HERO. In the face of the gravest danger and despite being seriously injured, he showed immense courage and an unwavering resolve to protect the lives of others… India is proud of Captain Machchhar.”
Mr. Netanyahu, also on X, said, “My salute to the Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his extraordinary bravery… He saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals… He is a true hero.”
An All India Radio bulletin on October 1, 2026, said Saudi authorities had arrested the Omani co-pilot. The Indian Embassy in Riyadh, in a post on X, said its mission and the Consulate in Jeddah had been “following the health condition of Mr. Smit Machchhar,” who was “admitted in a hospital in Tabuk city in northwest Saudi Arabia and is receiving necessary medical attention,” and was reported to be in stable condition, with a full health update awaited.
Flydubai, in three statements shared with The Hindu, confirmed the incident, said the aircraft “landed safely in Tabuk Airport and all passengers are safe and accounted for,” and that an altercation in the flight deck was resolved by on-duty crew who “diverted and landed the aircraft safely.”
The airline said two replacement aircraft were deployed to Tabuk, that the incident had “no impact on other scheduled operations,” and urged against “premature speculation” while the cause remained under formal investigation. It later said flights to and from Israel would be suspended while the investigation continued, and that it remained “in close coordination with government authorities, regulators and airport stakeholders.”
Flydubai, owned by the Dubai Aviation Corporation, began operations in June 2009, flies to more than 125 destinations including India, and operates a single aircraft type, the Boeing 737; it announced an extensive partnership with Emirates in 2017.
The incident has drawn comparisons to earlier cases of “unlawful interference,” including Japan Airlines flight 350 (1982), Royal Air Maroc flight 630 (1994), Silk Air flight 185 (1997), EgyptAir flight 990 (1999), LAM Mozambique Airlines flight 47 (2013) and the Germanwings flight 9525 crash (2015).
Israeli authorities are reported to have opened an investigation against the first officer, while Saudi Arabia’s National Transport Safety Centre and the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority have also begun investigations.
Some reports have referred to undefined “threats” against Israel ahead of the anniversary of the October 7, 2023, attacks, though the reasons for the incident remain speculative pending a full investigation. Israel has decided to step up security checks on all pilots flying into the country, a Reuters report said, quoting a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s office.
